


(Look) What You've Done

by furiosity



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, F/F, Future Fic, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-02
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-22 05:55:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furiosity/pseuds/furiosity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Aomine is a cop and Kagami is a firefighter. That's it, that's the whole thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by [Jet song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9MgaBEpr0), of course. The Satsuki/Riko will be important but non-explicit.

Kagami Taiga is living the life of his dreams.

The ball clears the rim, silent. Taiga lands smoothly and checks the clock above the backboard. Ten fifteen. _Time to wrap it up, I guess._

As he gathers the ball up, his beeper and cell phone go off at the same time. He picks the phone; that's the ringtone for his boss at the fire station.

"Kagami, it's Awamori. You anywhere near Azabudai?"

"I'm _in_ Azabudai. Regular gym's closed for fumigation or some such." 

"Send your coordinates to Toudou's truck and get outside. He's gonna pick you up in like four seconds."

Taiga hangs up, sends his location to Toudou, lobs the ball in the vague direction of the storage area, and jogs to the changing room. He tugs on jeans right over his shorts and doesn't bother with the t-shirt; the jersey's enough. Bag in hand, he's out of the building in another minute just as Toudou's truck pulls up to the curb, siren blaring.

Taiga tosses his bag inside and hops aboard, grinning. "Whoa, where's the fire?"

"For a goddamned asshole, you sure are funny," Toudou says. "Your stuff's in the back, don't fall on your ass, junior."

"Fuck off and die in a slow fire," Taiga returns, clapping him on the shoulder as he heads for his turnout gear. "Where are we going?"

"Two more blocks," the driver, whose voice Taiga doesn't recognise, yells.

"It's a private residence, neighbours called it in. Idiots tried to put the fire out before bothering to call, so it's pretty bad. And half the squad's at that stupid hot spring retreat."

Taiga lifts his feet off the floor by turns to make sure his boots are on and shrugs into the jacket, grabbing his helmet off the shelf. "People?"

"No clue," Wakatsuki chimes in from the other side as the truck roars to a stop. "That's the problem. Everyone out!"

Taiga hops off the step and sprints towards Lt Awamori, who points to an off-white duplex with an entrance hidden behind two tall shrubs. "Hige's overheated but he says he saw a guy on the kitchen floor. Go get him."

Taiga nods and heads for the door, zipping his jacket up all the way as he goes. Volunteers aren't supposed to run solo rescues, but when you're short-handed, the book may go right out the window. Lesson number one of working for a chronically understaffed fire department.

His boots thump hollow as he bounds across the broken door. Smoke's rapidly filling up the downstairs. He forgot to ask which way's the kitchen.

"Fire department! Raise your voice if you can hear me!" he shouts, peering around in all directions. In the headset mounted inside the helmet, he hears his colleagues' indistinct shouting.

Taiga glances through the open door into a child's bedroom. Five stuffed rabbits dressed in people clothes give him identical blank stares. This right here is the creepiest part of the job. Not the pained creaking inside the walls or the ominous roar of flames that always sounds farther away than it is. Not even the people who don't make it out, but grey-cast abandoned rooms and discarded toys. Empty places about to burn.

Taiga shudders and pushes further inside, calling out to no response, until he reaches the kitchen, where a man lies on the floor, his back to the doorway. "Found Hige-san's guy; he's out cold or dead, I can't tell," he yells into the helmet mic.

No overt signs of spinal trauma, but Taiga doesn't check too closely; injured or dead, he's got to come outside. The smoke is thicker.

"You're a big enough guy, aren't you?" Taiga remarks conversationally as he drags him out to the hallway. Probably around Taiga's weight, give or take a few kilograms. Taiga could probably lift him, but -- and this has been an endless source of disappointment for him since he first trained for the job ten years ago -- firefighters are no longer allowed to carry people out of burning buildings, because smoke travels upwards, and the worst thing you can do to a victim is expose them to more smoke.

"Almost there," he mumbles, avoiding looking at the creepy bunnies as he passes them again.

Hige meets him at the door with a flattened stretcher and a pair of EMTs. Once the four of them load the victim on, Taiga gets a look at his face, illuminated by an overhead street light, and his heart takes a quick break.

The man on the stretcher is Aomine Daiki, Taiga's one-time basketball rival, his former friend, and his first heartbreak.

 _Should've left the fucker to burn._ Anger surfaces deep in Taiga's chest, as though an evening breeze stirring life into the coals of a fire-pit everyone thought was dead. It's a stale but vicious thing, this old grudge; Taiga didn't even know it was still a grudge until now.

_Taiga finds Aomine just outside the sports arena, wearing just his Touou uniform even though it's winter. Ergo, too fucking cold to be prancing around in basketball shorts. "Hey, can I talk to you?"_

_"That was a good game," Aomine says, not looking at him. "I had fun. I guess we won't have a rematch again."_

_Taiga shrugs. "We're just graduating, not moving to different planets. You can come get your revenge whenever."_

_"Nah, it's not the same one-on-one."_

_"College, then."_

_"I'm not going to college, are you stupid? I'm fucking sick of school."_

_That makes one less question that Taiga wanted to ask. "Come with me for a bit. It's freezing out here."_

_Aomine arches an eyebrow. "If this is about Tetsu's surprise birthday party, I already told Satsuki I'm not going. Parties are for little kids."_

_"It's not about the party, come on, it's cold."_

_"You're wearing a jacket," Aomine complains, but he lets himself be pulled along into the building_

_Taiga unzips his jacket as they get inside; if he doesn't lose his nerve now, he's about to start sweating a whole lot._

_For months and months, they've caught each other staring, drew back too sharply if they happened to touch. Taiga's sure that it's not just him. Maybe Aomine's feelings don't run as deep as Taiga's, but something is there. Taiga knows he isn't the smartest or the most observant person, so if he of all people is noticing the way Aomine looks at him, then there's got to be at least_ something. _Something like the feeling of his heart turning to jelly whenever Aomine looks directly into his eyes. Something like the elation he feels whenever he and Aomine battle it out in the paint: having Aomine focusing only on him, looking only at him. Something real. Taiga is sure is there, but at the same time he's not sure. So he has to ask._

_He has to try. Now. If he doesn't do it now, he'll never find the courage again. The worst that can happen is Aomine'll reject him and they'll go their separate ways. They're friends, after all. More or less._

_"I'm in love with you," he says, fists so tight in his pockets it's as though they're never meant to loosen again.._

_Aomine's face undergoes a transformation Taiga's never seen before: his eyes widen, his lips part slowly, his cheeks flush with a shade of deep pink that Taiga will never forget. He bites his lower lip briefly and blinks at Taiga. "You serious?"_

_Taiga nods. He keeps his eyes on Aomine's, determined to see this through to whatever end. "Since a while ago. I just--"_

_Aomine doesn't let him finish; he grabs the front of Taiga's jersey, pulls him close, and kisses his mouth; it's rough and deep and wet and so perfect that Taiga's knees, already tired from the final match, start to give out. Aomine keeps a tight hold on his jersey and holds Taiga up; he kisses-kisses-_ kisses _him until Taiga's making desperate noises low in his throat; he doesn't mean to, they just come because this feels so much better than he imagined._

_Aomine grabs his ass with both hands, shoves a thigh between Taiga's legs and pulls him close against it. Taiga's already so hard he's ready to come just from that little bit of friction if Aomine continues._

_But Aomine_ pushes _him away with so much force that Taiga nearly loses his footing. He looks up at Aomine in confusion, but he's looking past Taiga-- no,_ through _him._. He laughs a high-pitched, unpleasant laugh, another thing Taiga will also never forget. "You really were serious, goddamn. I thought you were pranking me, but look how excited you are. Gross."

_Taiga's brain has already registered that this is not going to have a happy ending. His heart still hasn't caught on. His heart still hopes it's some kind of put-on and won't let him run. He has to run. He must run before Aomine can say another word._

_"I don't know what gave you the idea that I'm some kind of homofag," Aomine says in a low voice. "You're lucky we were buddies until now. I'll let you off this once. But don't fucking ever appear in front of me again, you disgusting freak, or I'll rip your nasty dick off and feed it to sewer rats."_

_He gives Taiga another one-handed shove and walks away._

_Taiga stands frozen until Aomine's footsteps no longer echo in the hallway. His hands are still in the pockets of his jacket -- Aomine was so fierce that Taiga forgot he_ had _hands. They're no longer fists, though. He rubs his fingertips against his still-sweaty palms and realises that it really happened. He didn't just hallucinate the whole thing. And it was much worse than his original worst-case scenario._

_He thought he'd be a little more... in pain, but it's a funny thing; he can't feel much of anything at all. He sits down next to a supply closet door -- it's in a little wall niche, so he's not blocking the path. For some reason Taiga has never been more aware of his large, awkward size as he is now. He rests his forehead on his drawn-up knees and doesn't move for a long time._

_He learns a few things in that time. One: you don't just fall out of love with someone even if they go out of their way to hurt you. Two: the amount of tears a well-cared-for human body can leak is probably close to infinite. Three: all those other times he thought he felt crushed really were cases of feeling strongly rattled. Four: it is never, ever going to be safe for him to fall in love._

_A janitor finds him as the arena is closing, then brings his teammates, who are frantic with worry. They've been searching for him the whole time. Taiga tells them he's sorry._

_He tells them he was sad because this was their very last game together. Their very last tournament. It's true: he's sad about that too._

Just thinking about it makes Taiga want to find a hole to hide in, and it's been ten long and pretty happy years since then. Taiga's living the life of his dreams and all, but down there on the stretcher lies his one recurring nightmare. He's fallen in love again since then, more than once, and been loved in return -- but he's never really had a serious, lasting relationship. No one's stuck around long enough for Taiga to remember what it means to trust someone.

He wouldn't really have left Aomine for dead if he'd recognised him to start with; he's a firefighter, not some kind of sociopath. It's a damned near thing, though. _I guess this is why my day job is basketball._

The doors shut behind Aomine's stretcher and the ambo shrieks its way into the streets. Taiga spits in its general direction and goes back to work.

*

A few days after the Azabudai incident, Taiga stops by the fire station to sign up for the newest preparedness training seminar and to put fresh clothes into his locker. He's on his way out when Lt Awamori flags him down.

"Kagami, come in here a sec." She waves him into her office.

Taiga adjusts his bag strap and does as he's told. "What's up?" He sniffs the air. Sesame oil and mystery meat from the daily-special shop down the street. "Did you eat lunch at your desk again?"

She ignores the question. "Hige's retiring next year."

 _Here it comes._ "Oh yeah?"

Awamori steeples her fingers on top of coffee-stained paperwork that hasn't been touched in weeks. "Gonna have a spot open on the rescue squad."

Taiga grins. "Someone's gonna be lucky to grab it."

"Quit giving me a hard time, you little shit," she growls. "You gonna go for it or what?"

"Nah, boss, I'm good."

She sighs. "Basketball."

Taiga nods. "Basketball. Besides, if I'm going to make rank then it'll be for the fire unit, not rescue. It's a thing."

She tilts her head. "My kid's the same way, so I guess I get it."

The phone on her desk rings, and Taiga bows out and makes his way across to the exit. As he's about to leave the building, Lt Awamori yells his name again.

Taiga sighs and walks back to her office. "Boss, I'm flattered and all, but--"

She waves at him to shut up. "That's not it. That was the police chief on the phone. Turns out that mook you saved in Azabudai last weekend is the vice squad's star interrogator, so he was calling to convey his personal gratitude."

"Damn, that's kind of a big deal," Taiga says, impressed.

"A huge deal," she agrees. "He even asked your name; you'll be getting an official commendation."

Taiga balks. "Me? Since when are we supposed to be praised extra for doing our regular jobs?"

"Don't complain about it," she snaps. "We can use positive attention from the good old Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, especially in this district. The superintendent's got influence on our budget and the police chief's only daughter is married to him."

"All right," Taiga says, raising both hands as a shield. "All I'm saying is the others aren't going to like it. I'm not even a career guy. Call him back and say you made a mistake. Give him Hige's name. He would've been the rescuer if he hadn't overheated."

"I'm bad at lying," she tells him. "If you _were_ career, this wouldn't be a problem, see?"

Taiga rolls his eyes. "I'm outta here." He's been giving it some thought, the career thing. But he's not ready to quit basketball, and he won't be bullied into it.

As he unlocks his bike from the rack outside the station, it hits him.

_The vice squad's star interrogator._

So Aomine ended up becoming a cop. And went and had a weird-ass little kid, if those creepy bunnies Taiga saw are any indication. 

"Why the fuck am I thinking about that asshole, anyway?" Taiga says under his breath and takes off towards home. 

The old coals flare again, and Taiga takes a few extra turns to ride along the river so he can pedal fast enough to drown the anger out. An early autumn wind pushes hard against his face, and soon Taiga's only concerned with picking up as much speed as he can, so fast he's weightless, a young man from the future gliding along a sparkling river on his hover-bike.

Young, huh. He's closer to thirty than he is to twenty-five. Maybe it _is_ time to think about quitting basketball before he's like those sad sacks in their forties trying to compete on stamina with twenty-somethings.

He slows his pace, navigates across two lively intersections, and then he's in the park behind his building. He stows his bike in the shed next to the fullmoon maple, slings his bag over his shoulder, and digs for his apartment keys as he heads for the main entrance.

Some guy's standing right by the door, making a terrible show of reading the paper. Probably a salesman waiting for someone to mistake him for a resident and let him in so he can ring himself some doorbells and sell some hair-growth potions or whatever the fuck. Taiga's not about to let him in, but he doesn't want a confrontation, either, so he decides to go and grab a burger before heading home. 

Mood he's in, he'd probably clean the bastard's clock, and he doesn't want to deal with the potential fallout. Some guys go around trying to get their brains knocked out of their skulls by pro athletes, and then the athletes have to hire lawyers. Some guys go around picking fights with bigger guys just for the hell of it, too. Taiga's got no time for either sort.

"Yo, Kagami," the would-be salesman says as Taiga passes by him. It's a chest-deep baritone Taiga would know anywhere. A little rougher than he remembers, but unmistakable.

"When my boss told me your name, I wondered what the odds were. Long time no see."

_Aomine._

[tbc]


	2. Chapter 2

Taiga keeps walking. That ought to make it clear that he'd like to go another good long time without seeing each other again. Long enough to last forever. _What the hell did he come here for?_

Unconscious, Aomine was only an echo of past pain. But his voice, streaked with a full breath of arrogance, is like a time machine for Taiga's heart. Given half a chance, it would still beat faster, frightened, with that voice.

"Oi, Kagami, are you deaf?" A firm hand clasps his right shoulder. "You can't have forgotten."

"I wish," Taiga bites back without turning around. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to say thank you in person." The slight hesitation in Aomine's tone surprises Taiga even more than the idea that Aomine Daiki has become capable of expressing gratitude like an adult.

"That's not necessary," Taiga says and knocks Aomine's hand away. "Don't approach me again."

He fights the urge to turn around and see if Aomine's eyes will still pull him in, hypnotise him the way they used to. Deep down, he's been a little afraid that he isn't over Aomine even after everything. That's partly why he's so angry. Who would want to go through the same heartbreak twice?

_It's better to just leave it,_ Taiga decides, but before he can resume walking, Aomine grabs his shoulder again and forces him to turn around.

"Don't tell me you're still buttsore over what happened in high school," he says. "For fuck's sake, we were kids."

Taiga can't look at Aomine's face, so he stares at the collar of his dark grey suit. Expensive-looking, probably tailored -- no cheap polyester for this guy. It makes Taiga feel self-conscious in his seen-better-days cargos and team shirt.

Kids. Taiga never could figure out why people like to use that excuse so much -- as if kid feelings aren't real feelings. As if you have to reach a certain age before you worries have worth. He's not surprised that this is the kind of adult Aomine became.

"Are we done here?" he asks, deciding that he doesn't want to discuss his feelings -- past or present -- with this guy.

Aomine snorts. "Look, if I'd known you were going to be such a _girl_ about it, I'd have been a little nicer."

Taiga's mind flashes back to a week after they graduated from high school. Cherry blossoms in the park. A pink-haired girl, inconsolable. _I thought he was my friend._

He meets Aomine's eyes. No -- no pull there. An echo of forgotten longing, maybe, like looking at an old photo from happier times. 

"Fuck you," he says, slow and deliberate and perfectly calm. It's easy to be calm when he's angry on someone else's behalf. "You weren't any nicer to Satsuki."

Aomine's eyes widen -- for a heart-stopping moment, Taiga's back in that hallway confessing again -- and he opens his mouth as if to speak, but for a wonder nothing comes out.

Taiga's not sure why mentioning Satsuki seems to have hit a nerve -- he knows for a fact the two haven't been in contact since back then -- but he'll take it. 

He changes course for the shopping arcade; his appetite is gone, but he does need to get groceries.

He has dealt with unwanted visitors before -- persistent fans. But somehow he doesn't think having uniforms from the police box up the street come over and explain the facts of life to Aomine would be very effective: Aomine outranks them. 

Taiga hopes Aomine takes the hint and doesn't come around again. 

His hopes are dashed when he returns an hour later and finds Aomine sitting on the edge of the sandbox in the building playground, fancy suit and all. Spotting Taiga on the sidewalk, he rises to approach him.

Taiga contemplates pretending he hasn't noticed, but Aomine's hard to miss, and he's looking right at Taiga, obviously meaning to block him physically if he needs to.

"Look, I don't want to make this into a thing," Taiga says, not giving Aomine a chance to speak. "But I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to use your police credentials to get private citizen information like addresses for no good reason."

Aomine smirks. "Oh no, I'm getting lectured by a civilian."

Taiga bristles. "Please leave. If you don't stop bothering me, I'm gonna complain to my boss."

"Which one, the Flares' team manager or Lieutenant Awamori at the fire station?" Subtext: I know more about you than your address.

Taiga shrugs. "Don't make me say it twice."

Aomine nods at the grocery bags in Taiga's hands. "Why don't you drop those at home and we'll go for a drink." Taiga begins to refuse, but Aomine continues talking right over him. "I couldn't help noticing that the name on the other apartment on your floor is Kuroko. Would that be Kuroko as in Kuroko Tetsuya? I wanna hear more about this interesting living arrangement."

Blood rushes to Taiga's temples. "My neighbours are even less of your business than I am. Stay away from me." He pushes past Aomine, no longer certain that he can keep this from turning into a major headache for his boss. A volunteer firefighter assaulting a police detective -- that kind of stuff just isn't supposed to happen.

"Kagami."

Taiga stops but doesn't turn around. He's so close to dropping the grocery bags and throwing the first punch that he can almost feel his knuckles making contact with Aomine's perfect face.

His left shoulder has begun to ache -- an old injury that flares up whenever he feels stressed out. He really is getting older.

"Leave me alone," he almost whispers. 

"How can I make it up to you?" Aomine asks. 

The playful tone is gone, and so's the smirk; Taiga doesn't even need to look at him to know that. This is what Aomine sounds like when he's serious. It's what he sounded like when he became Taiga's first heartbreak. All the fight goes out of Taiga.

He sighs. "You can't."

"Never?"

Taiga puts the bags down on the sidewalk, careful not to break the jar of pickled plums, and turns to face Aomine. He was right: the smirk is gone, and there's real anxiety in the set of Aomine's mouth. _He really had no idea what he'd done, did he?_

"Look, it's not like you ruined my life," Taiga tells him. "You were the first homophobic asshole I had to deal with -- not the last and not the worst. But I'm happy. My life is great. You're just a bad memory. If you really want to make it up to me, then stay away so I don't have to think about you."

*

He's just finished loading the groceries into the fridge when Satsuki floats into the kitchen. "What's for dinner?"

Taiga jumps. He's been going over and over his encounter with Aomine, and he doesn't even understand why. _It's over, it's done now. Stop thinking about it._

"I didn't hear you come in," he says, apologetic. 

"That's not a very good dish name," Satsuki points out. "A bit on the 'tuna surprise' side. Think of a better one."

"It's not a dish name," Taiga says. He shuts the refrigerator door and turns to her. "I ran into Aomine today."

Satsuki's nose twitches like she's seen a bug. "Oh."

They sit down in the living room and Taiga tells her everything, from the Azabudai rescue to earlier today.

"He noticed our surname?" Satsuki asks, frowning.

"Yeah, but I bet he'll just think Tetsuya and I are doing the do," Taiga assures her. "Sounds like he looked up some other stuff about me, but since I'm not involved in your arrangement, I don't think he'd know about you."

Satsuki shrugs. "It's not so much that I care if he knows or not. I'm sure he's going to find out which Kuroko is living on this floor. Then he'll see that Tetsu-kun's married to me. He might even notice that Ricchan is on our family register too." She brushes her bangs away from her eyes. "Our situation is not exactly hard to figure out if you know what's up. Let him find out. He can't hurt us. It just makes me mad that he's still walking all over people as he pleases."

A gurgle of laughter comes from the hallway outside, and then Riko tromps through the door with Seiichi in tow. "Satsuki, I thought you were going to find out about dinner. It's been fifteen minutes already."

Seiichi shrieks at the sight of Taiga and tries to run towards him, trips, falls onto his belly, sneezes, and crawls the rest of the way. 

"Doesn't have the whole walking thing down yet, does he?" Taiga asks, picking the baby up and lifting him high in the air.

"Who's that? It's Mr Tiger!" Satsuki coos. "Sei-chan, say, 'Hello, Mr Tiger!'"

"Quit teaching the kid stupid things," Taiga complains. "I'm not a tiger."

Riko pulls up a cushion. "Why did you both have such serious faces before my kid stole the show?"

"Our kid. He's mine too," Satsuki puts in.

Riko looks contrite. "Yes, dear."

Taiga sighs and stands up so he can lift Seiichi even higher, to the kid's eternal delight. He's doomed to be forever envious of these two. To think that if he hadn't noticed Satsuki crying in the park that cloudy spring day -- or chosen to ignore her -- they might never have ended up here.

_Kuroko's mom took her son to Hong Kong to celebrate his high school graduation, and Taiga somehow got cajoled into taking care of Nigou while they're gone. He's on his way home from Nigou's morning walk when he spots a familiar pink-haired figure on a bench beneath a flowering cherry tree. Except he's never seen Momoi Satsuki so distraught; she's got her face in her hands and is sobbing so loudly passers-by are staring at her._

_"Momoi... uh... san?" Taiga ventures, approaching. If Kuroko were here, he would know what to do, but Taiga can't exactly leave her like this while he fetches Kuroko. "Do you need any help?"_

_"Please don't bother about me," Momoi says through clenched teeth. "I'm just on my way to Tetsu-kun's. Please don't look at me when I'm like this."_

_"Kuroko's not home," Taiga says, trying for a gentle tone of voice but instead sounding like a mildly deranged orangutan. "He's in Hong Kong for the rest of the week."_

_Momoi sniffs. "It's always like this, isn't it? Nothing will ever go well for me, I might as well just die!"_

_Taiga gazes at her unhappy face and sighs inwardly. He hates getting involved in people's problems but he can't just leave her here like this. He crouches down in front of her._

_Sometimes it's easier to talk to an outsider. Taiga knows; he was too ashamed to discuss the Aomine thing with anyone he knew, so he made an anonymous blog in English and just wrote it all out for strangers to read. A bunch of faceless people from halfway around the world, and he felt more comfortable talking to them than to his best friend._

_"I'm moving to LA in a month," Taiga offers. "I'll be going to university there. So we probably won't see each other again."_

_Momoi gives him a suspicious look. "Do you know about... about Ricchan and me?"_

_Taiga nods, blushing a little. "I overheard the coach on the phone with you a few times." Shit, these women inspired him to try his luck with Aomine in the first place._

_Momoi inhales shakily. "Then I'll tell you. My parents said that now that I've finished high school, it's time to stop my childish foolishness and break up with Ricchan. They said I'll never find a husband if I keep playing around."_

_Taiga swallows. "They were okay with it before?"_

_She nods. "They said it was cute. Turns out they were just happy I wasn't going to get myself up the duff before college. And now--" She hides her face in her hands again. "They said they won't even pay for college unless I break it off."_

_"That's really bad," Taiga offers. "I can see why you're upset."_

_"That's not why I'm upset," Momoi says, and her voice is so sad Taiga could probably start crying right along with her if he were the weepy sort. "I went to find Dai-chan afterwards. He didn't know anything about us. I never told him until today."_

_Taiga begins to dread where this is going, but he can't even speak._

_Momoi looks up at him. Her lower lip is quivering; her eyes hold a mixture of despair and fury. "He said, 'Man, what a waste of a pair of tits.'"_

_Taiga recoils; he can_ hear _Aomine saying it, can see Aomine's face -- the smug mouth, the eyes that always look down on you. "Shit," he offers. It's the best he can do._

_"I thought he was my friend!" Momoi wails._

_A passing drunkard yells, "I'll be your friend, little lady! Don't be sad!"_

_Taiga rises to his full height and turns to glare at him. The dude starts a bit and walks on at a much quicker pace._

_Momoi gives a shaky laugh and dabs at her eyes with her fingertips. "That's impressive, Kagamin. You made him run away just by looking, like a movie hero."_

_"I'm no hero," Taiga tells her, crouching back down so he isn't talking down to her. "What happened to you is my fault."_

_Momoi's eyebrows shoot up, and she blinks. "Your fault? How could it possibly--"_

_"Just hear me out," Taiga interrupts. He's got to do this quickly or he'll lose his nerve. He feels like he owes this woman at least that much. "I confessed to Aomine back in winter and he went nuclear. Called me names, said he'd mess me up if he saw me again."_

_Momoi gazes at him with the kind of pity Taiga was really hoping to avoid. "It's seriously no big deal," he mutters._

_She's stopped crying, so at least that's something. "That doesn't make it your fault," she says. "I don't care how upset Dai-chan was with you. Even if he had a right to be mad at you -- which he did not -- I'm not you. Me and him have known each other since we were little."_

That day, he ended up offering to treat Momoi to lunch. They became friends somewhere along the way to the family restaurant, and neither of them ever spoke to anyone else about what Aomine had done. 

Satsuki never went home again after that day. She lived at Riko's, worked part time and applied for scholarships, and went to the same university as Tetsuya. The two of them got married after graduation; soon after, they put Riko into the family register too. Tetsuya went to work for a big publishing company, and when Riko and Satsuki decided to become moms, they moved the family to the apartment across the hall from Taiga's to minimise neighbour gossip. Seiichi was conceived via artificial insemination and born in a private hospital -- where the staff were sure Riko's name was Kuroko Satsuki -- and registered as Satsuki and Tetsuya's son.

And Taiga's always felt envious of Riko and Satsuki, how they never even considered giving up on each other, no matter how many lies they had to tell the world, no matter how inconvenient it must be for them to have to share their lives with Tetsuya -- and, to some extent, Taiga. As far as he knows, Aomine's betrayal is the only thing Satsuki has ever kept from Riko.

So now that Riko is staring at the two of them expectantly, Taiga is glad he's got Seiichi, because he can make funny faces at him and pretend he didn't hear her question.

Satsuki's phone rings, and she snatches it out of her pocket. "Ah, Tetsu-kun! Good thing you called! Tai-chan wants you to buy eggs on your way home. He's going to make omurice."

_I am?_ Taiga almost says, but Satsuki's got an I-will-murder-you-if-you-speak kind of smile on her face, and he keeps his mouth shut.

"Anyway, Tai-chan was just telling me about a fire he was called to last week," Satsuki says smoothly after hanging up the phone. "He had to drag a guy as big as him out of a burning building, can you imagine?"

Riko raises an eyebrow. "Oh, did you get his number? Tall and stacked men are your type, aren't they?"

"He was unconscious," Taiga says, glaring a bit at Satsuki as he hands Seiichi over. "Unconscious men aren't my type at all. Quit trying to find me a boyfriend."

"If I were seriously trying to find you a boyfriend, you'd have one by now," Riko tells him. "Be a little more grateful, junior."

*

After dinner's over and the Kuroko clan has vacated the premises, Taiga's washing the dishes and feeling like the world's biggest asswipe. Satsuki ended up looking troubled all evening, and he's sure it's because he told her about Aomine.

He just felt like he had an obligation to tell her, since there was a chance Aomine might find out that she lives up here too. She deserved to be warned in case he comes around and pushes the button labelled _Kuroko_ downstairs. But he should have spared her the details of their conversation. Just made something up.

Taiga shuts off the tap, wipes his hands and spends the rest of the night on the couch in front of the TV, but he has no idea what's even on. He keeps thinking about what happened and he can't seem to find a way to stop.

_You're just a bad memory._

As if to spite him, Taiga's mind cycles through moments he thought long gone beyond recall. The first time he faced Aomine in a match, the crushing defeat that spurred him to get stronger. The many times they battled on the court. Aomine giving Taiga his basketball shoes so he could play his best. Aomine half-naked on a moonlit beach after a hard day's workout at a joint training camp in the summer of third year. _I might miss you losers a little._ The precise moment Taiga's bewildering crush turned into something stronger.

The struggle against the Generation of Miracles gave Taiga his wings, defined him as a player. During their high school days at least, Aomine was his favourite rival -- and the truth is he's never met another. Feelings of attraction aside, nobody challenges him the way Aomine challenged him. Nobody pushes him so hard that he feels he can break through iron gates with sheer momentum.

Aomine's harsh, mocking voice bursts this capricious tapestry of nostalgia, like a crow through a paper door. _You disgusting freak._

And that's what it comes down to, doesn't it? He wants love and acceptance, not a rival. He wants a life like Satsuki and Riko's. He wants someone to come home to. Someone to trust. His basketball days will be over in a few more years. At this point Taiga needs a powerful rival like a housecat needs a chainsaw.

He drifts off to sleep thinking about how he turned around in the building doorway and saw Aomine still standing on the sidewalk, his back as broad as ever and his head held just as high.

_With this it's done. It's over. Let it go._

*

Taiga's glad the Flares are back at their usual gym -- going to the Azabudai one kept reminding him of his run-in with Aomine. It's been a month since Aomine showed up at Taiga's building. He hasn't been back to harass either Taiga or Satsuki, and the whole thing is starting to feel like it's really finished.

Now if only Taiga could stop thinking about it.

Manager Fukui flags him down on the way to the showers. "A moment?"

"What's up?"

"We're having an unscheduled practice game on Thursday, will you play?" Fukui puts his hands together as though in prayer.

"Practice?" Taiga asks, surprised -- the timing is a big weird. "Against whom?" 

"Metro Police," Fukui says. "They've got a friendly match against Tokyo Fire in three weeks and want to break in some newbie."

TMPD basketball team. Would Aomine be on it? Taiga has no idea if Aomine even cares about basketball any more. He also has no idea why he's started to associate everything cop-related with Aomine. He can't even walk past a police box without thinking of the bastard.

"Are you really asking?" Taiga asks. When Fukui asks for things, there isn't much room to refuse. "It might count as a conflict of interest." Taiga's not allowed to play in TFD basketball games; having a pro on a hobbyist team is unfair.

Fukui gives him a sly look. "I gave Lt Awamori a call; she said it's no problem as long as you don't play in the real match."

"You even went that far," Taiga says with a sigh. "Fine, I'll be there. But you better treat us to yakiniku after."

When Thursday arrives, he is only a little surprised to find Aomine warming up on the other side of the Flares' indoor court with a bunch of shaven-headed guys who look like Self-Defence Forces rejects.

_Will nothing go well for me again?_

[tbc]


	3. Chapter 3

Taiga suppresses a sigh and starts his own warm-up drills. He had a feeling this was going to happen. He's lived too long to believe in fate or even coincidence. 

Aomine joined the TMPD basketball team and convinced someone that it would be good to practice against the Flares -- as opposed to any one of the several dozen pro teams in the city. _We're not finished until I say so,_ in other words, with a side order of _I don't care about your feelings; I'll get in your face as much as I want._ Classic Aomine.

Oshiro sidles up to Taiga. "Hey, isn't that Aomine over there? Weren't you in the same cohort way back when?"

Taiga glances at him, surprised. Oshiro's at least five years younger. "You know that guy?"

"Know him? Not exactly -- my coach in high school was obsessed with him. Made us watch videos of Aomine's matches over and over again."

"Damn. I'd have quit the team," Taiga says with a smirk. Good thing Riko would never have been so short-sighted a coach that she'd focus on one guy. He still wishes Riko coached pro basketball, but she's taken over her dad's business.

"I was a Seirin fan, you know," Oshiro adds.

Hearing someone else say _Seirin_ awakens a deep, sweet ache in Taiga's chest. "It was one hell of a team," he says. 

He wishes he were better at keeping in touch -- but maybe it's a good thing he isn't. Who knows what the rest of the guys would think of Taiga's life now. Who knows if they would even have anything to talk about, without basketball. He's skipped two class reunions already -- five-year and ten-year. Maybe he'll go to the next one. _That's what I said five years ago._

"Whatever happened to that little invisible guy with all the passes?" Oshiro asks as they finish up their warm-up exercise set.

"Tetsuya? He's doing fine." Taiga grins. "Edits a serious literary magazine these days. We're neighbours."

"No way! That's kind of cool. Friends for life, huh? What about him?" Oshiro nods in Aomine's direction.

"What _about_ him?"

"You kept in touch at all? Seemed like that was some epic rivalry you two had going back then."

"Nah. To tell you the truth, there's some bad blood there. I don't like him at all."

"A woman?"

Taiga thinks of Satsuki. "You could say that, I guess."

"I knew it. It's always a woman!" Oshiro jogs off towards the bench, leaving Taiga to glare in his wake.

When Taiga was younger, he used to think just learning that he of all people was gay would open others' eyes and make them realise that the stereotypes they have are all wrong. He understands now that's not how people work. When presented with a challenge to their preconceptions, they either dismiss it as an extreme outlier or refuse to believe that the challenge is even there.

Oshiro's aware that Taiga's gay but acts like he isn't -- because Taiga doesn't fit his idea of what a gay man's supposed to be like. He could get angry and yell an insult at Oshiro's back right now, but it wouldn't do any good. People's minds don't change unless the change is desired. 

He shifts his glare into Aomine's general direction, without really seeing him. The two team coaches have stopped conferring and the warm-up time is at an end; the match will start any time now.

"You've been looking thataway a lot," a voice whispers behind him. Taiga jumps and whirls around.

"For fuck's sake, Kenta, don't sneak up on me like that." Kenta's no Tetsuya -- for one thing, Kenta's over two metres tall -- but Taiga would swear they compare notes.

"Isn't he just your type?" Kenta asks with a grin, his eyes fixed behind Taiga -- Aomine, obviously.

"No," Taiga says. "Not that one."

"So you don't mind if I cut in?" Also unlike Tetsuya, Kenta's a total sadist who sleeps exclusively with straight guys, preferably married ones. Professional homewrecker.

"Don't," Taiga says. "That guy hates people like us. And he's some big-shot detective too, so you could end up in serious trouble."

Kenta's expression changes from playful to serious. "Like that, huh? Thanks for the warning."

Taiga shrugs. "Don't mention it."

Kenta peers into his eyes. "First-hand experience, I take it?"

"It was a long time ago," Taiga explains. "No worries."

The game's decided before it really starts, of course -- no matter how good they are, players who don't practice regularly have no chance against players who do, and one strong player is nothing against a team that knows how to work together. In the long run, no amount of raw talent will compensate for fundamentals. Aomine doesn't seem to have realised it even after this time. He's still fast, much faster than any amateur has any right to be, but he's also still a ball hog, and he can't finish any of his plays because the Flares' offensive players are better at stealing than any other team in the prefecture.

The TMPD coach looks on with approval, and Taiga realises that this isn't a game to break Aomine in -- it's to try and break his spirit so he can be put to good use. _Good luck with that,_ Taiga thinks at the man. Whenever Aomine lost in high school, he never seemed to understand that he lost to teams, not individual strong guys he fixated on. It might have helped if he lost more often in those days, but there were just the four times, two of them to Seirin.

When Taiga gets out of his post-game shower, he finds Aomine -- who was supposed to have been gone already; visiting team privilege means first use of the facilities -- waiting in the deserted changeroom.

"That was a good game."

Taiga nods noncommittally. Aomine in a suit, Aomine in basketball gear, and now Aomine in casual jeans and a tank top that looks fused to his flawless fucking skin. Plus the constant fucking reminders from literally everyone he knows that Aomine's exactly the type of guy Taiga goes for. Why must the universe mess with his head? He wouldn't fuck Aomine if Aomine were the last man in the universe and begging for it.

"I'll be back on top when we play you in three weeks," Aomine says, his tone very so-how-about-that-weather.

_Play us? Oh._ "Good luck with that. I can't play for Tokyo Fire."

Aomine looks disappointed. "I didn't know."

"Now you know." Taiga hates himself for it, but he feels disappointed too. Aomine's play style hasn't evolved at all since their high school days, and against Taiga's team he's a newborn puppy growling at a murder of crows, but he's still got the same passion that set Taiga's heart afire all those years ago. 

Shit, if only this were the first time they ever met, if only Aomine weren't straight -- this might have even been a love story. _If only._

Taiga heads for his locker, turns away from Aomine and reaches for his towel, then freezes, realising what he was about to do. Most courts in Japan or anywhere would probably agree that undressing while gay in the presence of members of the same sex can be considered tantamount to sexual assault, especially if it's a cop's word against some civilian's.

He sighs. "Could you leave the room? If you've got something else to say, I'll listen if you wait outside."

"Unclench, Kagami. I'm not after your ass."

Taiga's fury is so sudden that he has to bite down on his tongue, hard and painful, so he doesn't lose his head. He fishes his phone out and calls the team manager, who picks up right away. "Fukui-san, can you come to the changeroom? I gotta talk to you about something very important."

"Kagami-kuuuun," Fukui whines. "I'm two blocks away already, can't it wait until Saturday's yakiniku party?"

"No, it can't. Don't be lazy, Fukui-san; you can jog two blocks."

"Fine, but you're gonna come drinking with me tonight. My buddies ditched me."

"Gladly," Taiga says, hanging up. He could use a drink or nine. And he'll make sure Fukui understands that he will never again play any practice games against the cops.

Aomine walks closer, grabs him by the shoulders and forces him around. "What did you do that for? I'm not gonna hurt you, if that's what you're worried about. I get you're still sore over some stuff I said, but that shit was ten years ago. Get a grip."

Taiga feels completely helpless. He's naked but for the towel on his hips, which suddenly feels paper-thin even though it's his thickest and fluffiest one. They're alone; there are no witnesses -- everyone else will have gone by now. No security cameras in the changing rooms, either. Who knows if Fukui's really hurrying back. Aomine could do anything -- _anything_ \-- and get away with it; he's a Tokyo cop. Compared to that, Taiga's nothing.

"For fuck's sake, Kagami, don't make such a face. It was just a joke."

Taiga focuses on a dark, spider-shaped patch of linoleum beneath his bare feet. "What makes you think I'm gonna find your gay jokes funny?" 

He hopes his voice doesn't shake, but he's so scared he's barely managing to find the words, and his legs _are_ shaking; he can't stop it. He never knew that he had this much fear in him -- he didn't feel anything close to this when Aomine showed up at his place a month ago.

Aomine backs away a few steps. "Fine, fine, shit, don't have kittens. My bad."

"I know what you're trying to do," Taiga says, forcing himself to face him. "You just want to lay some petty harassment charge for your monthly quota, I get it, but could you pick someone else? Please?" _I guess it really pissed him off when I told him I was happy. Can't have a nasty homofag living a happy life, can we?_

"You really think I'd go that far," Aomine says, and his eyes have such a strange gleam in them -- it's almost as if Taiga has hurt his feelings. _Yeah, right._

Fukui bursts into the changing room with a greeting, but takes one look at Taiga and frowns. "What's going on here? Aomine-san, are you lost?"

"Nothing," Aomine says. "Just asking your ace here for a couple of tips. Thanks again for the game, Kagami."

As soon as his footsteps fade away, Taiga sits down heavily onto the bench in the middle of the changing room. Tears leak from his eyes, and he can't stop them. He hasn't been this terrified since he got jumped by five guys outside a club back in LA. A passing cruiser scared them off that night -- ironic, that.

"You didn't really have anything to talk to me about, did you?" Fukui asks, his tone uncharacteristically soft.

"Sorry, boss," Taiga mutters and wipes his nose with his forearm. "I really can't deal with that guy."

And he realises why he nearly lost it. _That was a good game,_ Aomine said when Taiga came out of the showers. It was the first thing he said the last time they talked as friends. It just took his sense memory a bit to kick in. The way he was feeling just now, before Fukui showed up, was the exact same way he felt when Aomine rejected and threatened him.

He hates Aomine a little bit more for still having that kind of power over him.

*

"Kagami, can you work a shift tomorrow?" Toudou asks after the final preparedness training seminar session ends. "I was gonna ask Wakatsuki, but then I thought, wait a minute, Kagami's a no-good layabout with no real job, he can work it."

Taiga puts the binder with his notes into his shoulder bag and tries to think ahead. The season's well underway already so he really shouldn't be taking shifts at the fire station, but their next game, two days away, is at home, so technically he could. "Why can't _you_ work it? Finally scheduled that penis enlargement procedure?"

Toudou gives him a look full of mock scorn. "My wife's due date's come and gone but the kid likes it in there a bit too much, I guess. So she's making them induce the birth."

"Sure, then," Taiga says. "Don't let me find out if you're actually going to get shitfaced at your fifty-year high school reunion, you ancient prick."

Toudou gives him a noogie. "I'll go tell the Lieutenant, since you asked so nicely, little squirt."

Taiga laughs and walks out into the fire hall after him, waves bye to a couple of other co-workers, and steps out into an unseasonably warm late October afternoon. As the door shuts behind him, he realises that for a second there, it felt like he was _leaving_ home, not going home.

_I really need to get myself a boyfriend before I quit basketball, make rank, and turn into one of those guys who live at their goddamn workplace._

As always during the season, his bike stays in the shed and he runs wherever he can. When jogging, he likes to take the way by the river -- it's really pretty with the leaves all turned to red and yellow; the quality of light is especially beautiful now, with dusk not far off. And he hasn't been around here much lately -- he's developed a weird superstition that if he takes his bike the river way, he'll come home to find Aomine on his doorstep. After all, that's what happened last time he did that.

He guesses that for a while, he'll keep thinking about Aomine while taking the river route, no matter how breathtaking the view. It'll pass, though. It has to.

Aomine hasn't tried to contact Taiga since their changing room encounter. TFD lost miserably to TMPD, but Taiga didn't even go to the game. He usually went, and a few guys even said they only lost this time because he wasn't there to shout out tips. Next year, he'll have to arrange to be out of town during the game, because something tells him Aomine's not going to quit playing basketball now that he's found it again, even if he initially got on the team to mess with Taiga's head. And Aomine's name was in everyone's mouth for weeks after that, at least until the baseball game. The way he plays is mesmerising; Taiga can't deny him that.

Taiga knows it's just a matter of time -- he put Aomine out of his mind once, and he'll do it again. Eventually the fear that Aomine's waiting around the next corner will fade. Getting impatient with himself for not forgetting quick enough is only going to make him think about Aomine more often.

He didn't tell Satsuki about what happened in the changing room, either. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe he should just talk to her about it. But he's still ashamed of himself for getting so scared of what was essentially a ghost, a sense-memory. She'll probably pat his head and laugh at him for being ridiculous, and he doesn't want that to happen.

Even though he isn't on his bike, he feels a little uneasy when he jogs up to his building. No men in suits are to be seen, though.

There _is_ a man in a suit lying on the floor of his living room, but this one's got light blue hair, a serene look on his face, and a baby sitting on his chest.

"I was feeling a little ill," Tetsuya explains as Taiga stands over him, arms folded. "So I came home from work. Satsuki-san and Riko-san went out on a date. Sei-chan and I were bringing in your morning paper -- you forgot it again, by the way -- and kind of... decided to lie down."

"Did you decide to lie down, or did you fall over?" Taiga asks. "Riko told me that you've been working too much overtime. I think I'm supposed to yell at you for it next time I see you."

"Never mind that," Tetsuya says. "Guess who's on the front page of the paper?"

"The Prime Minister? I don't know. I only get the paper for the sports pages," Taiga says, picking Seiichi up and settling him into the crook of his arm. "You want a snack?"

"Yes, please," Tetsuya says in a mournful voice.

"I wasn't talking to you, stupid," Taiga tells him, walking over to the kitchen. Seiichi grabs a fistful of his hair and tugs on it very lightly. Satsuki's been teaching him to be gentle lately, and it looks like it's working. "But fine, I'll fix you something too. I bet you don't eat, that's why you're sick."

"I'm not sick," Tetsuya says with a sigh. "I just felt a bit under the weather. You're like a mother hen, Mr Tiger."

"Don't you start that Mr Tiger shit with me," Taiga bites back.

They bicker back and forth while Taiga fixes a snack for Seiichi (apple and banana, puréed in the blender) and for the adults (yesterday's potato croquettes warmed up in the microwave and some quick-fry fish sticks). Tetsuya only gets to eat a few bites before Seiichi demands to be fed too, and Taiga leaves them to it, tucking into his own food. He prefers to stay quiet while eating, anyway; he likes to be able to really taste his food, without needless distractions.

He's often wished that Tetsuya were his type and gay. So much. It would have been so wonderful. They're best friends, their temperaments complement each other perfectly, and though they don't have much to talk about, especially these days, just sitting in silence with Tetsuya can recharge Taiga's batteries like nothing else.

But Tetsuya does nothing for him; he's short and scrawny even though he still plays basketball when he can; his face is too pretty, voice is too quiet, eyes are too sharp. Plus he's way too smart for Taiga to keep up with. And then there's the fact that Tetsuya is completely disinterested in anything to do with love, romance, or even sex. Taiga, Satsuki, and Riko have all given up on trying to understand how that's possible; they just accept it. And given that Tetsuya appears as a respectable married man to any outsider, he never gets any grief. Sometimes Taiga feels a little jealous of him for it. 

Sure, he knows he could have the same veneer of respectability. Lots of gay men are married to women; many have children with those women. Shit, a lot of them don't even know they're gay yet, or know but are in deep denial. Taiga could have a sham marriage -- he's got the requisite specs after all; semi-famous pro athlete, financially attractive, not bad to look at -- but he never would, not even if he found a woman with Tetsuya's inclinations who was willing to do it. He will not do it: he wants a shot at real happiness. He wants to find someone who'll make him feel the way Riko and Satsuki make each other feel.

Somewhere in the depths of his mind, Taiga swears he hears Aomine's laugh. His appetite begins to flag. He pulls the paper closer for a distraction and scans the headline, wondering what Tetsuya was talking about earlier.

_VICE SQUAD MAKES HISTORIC DRUG BUST IN ROPPONGI_

Next to the headline, there's a photo of a small army of uniformed cops dragging off some dangerous-looking guys with long ponytails. A little off to the side, scowling straight at the camera, is Aomine.


	4. Chapter 4

Taiga tries to scan the article for Aomine's name, but his eyes keep snapping back to the photograph. It has captured the very essence of Aomine's character: a menace so obvious you don't see it coming. He wouldn't be surprised if the person behind the camera were rotting in a dark cell somewhere for obstructing police.

_Twenty-three kilograms of stimulant substances were seized by Tokyo police acting in concert with a Saitama prefectural task force…_

"That's what I meant about the paper," Tetsuya tells him, and Taiga turns the paper upside down to hide the photo. "Aomine-kun became a police detective."

"Talk about a blast from the past," Taiga says, doing his best to pretend indifference. "He hasn't changed a bit."

"It's strange, because I just spoke to Aomine-kun a couple of weeks ago," Tetsuya says, spooning fruit goop up Seiichi's chin and into his mouth. "He called me all of a sudden."

_He what?_ "I see," Taiga says. "What a coincidence."

Seiichi blows a raspberry, spraying food everywhere; Tetsuya sighs and pulls a tissue box out from under the table. "I actually wanted to ask your opinion about it, but then I got stuck judging a poetry competition and forgot."

"My opinion?" Taiga echoes. "I don't have anything to do with that guy."

Tetsuya wipes his cheek and glances at Taiga. "Are you okay? Your voice sounds strange."

Taiga picks the paper back up and flips to the sports page. "No, I'm just surprised," he says. "It's weird for that guy to call you after all this time. What'd he want?"

"He asked after Satsuki-san, actually," Tetsuya says. "It seems he's somehow found out we are married."

Taiga puts the paper back down and looks at him. "Satsuki? She cut ties with him at the same time as she cut ties with her family, didn't she?" He feels bad about feigning ignorance, but he and Satsuki have made a promise. At least he didn't have to fake his surprise. He expected Tetsuya to tell him that Aomine asked about _him_.

Tetsuya nods. "She told me never to talk to her about him if I was her friend."

"So what does he want with her?"

Tetsuya feeds Seiichi the last of his fruit purée and mops his mouth with a clean tissue, much to Seiichi's muffled displeasure. "Apparently, he just wanted to know how she's doing."

"What'd you tell him?"

Tetsuya gives Taiga a slightly belligerent look. "I told him that if he wants to know something about Satsuki-san, he should contact her directly and ask."

"And?"

"He said thanks and hung up," Tetsuya says, lifting Seiichi off his lap and lowering him to the floor. "I suppose he might have been a little bit annoyed."

Taiga snorts. "I'll say. Have you told Satsuki?"

"Go on, Sei-chan, I want to eat my food now," Tetsuya says. 

Seiichi toddles over to Taiga, who picks him up and lets him climb onto his shoulders.

"I haven't told Satsuki-san," Tetsuya continues after swallowing some food. "That's why I meant to ask your advice. Do you think I'd be breaking my promise to her if I talked to her about it? She did say never to talk about Aomine-kun in front of her."

Taiga pushes his empty plate away. "If he's running around ten years later asking about her, it's a good idea to let her know." He pauses. "That's if you ask me."

Tetsuya nods and turns his attention to his food while Taiga minds Seiichi. For definitions of "mind" involving allowing a small child to use you as a jungle gym. Once Tetsuya's done, Taiga takes all the dishes back to the kitchen to wash them.

No wonder Aomine looked so bewildered when Taiga told him to stay away. Taiga was stupidly assuming that Aomine was trying to approach _him_ , but clearly Aomine just wanted to get back in touch with Satsuki. His business with Taiga was finished that first time he showed up downstairs -- to needlessly thank him for doing his goddamned job.

"Taiga?"

Taiga looks around. "What is it?"

"Why did you and Aomine-kun stop talking? Did it have to do with Satsuki-san?"

"I-- yeah, a bit," Taiga says, flustered. "I can't really talk about it, sorry."

Tetsuya nods. "I always wondered. I thought you were becoming good friends, and then you stopped calling each other all of a sudden."

Taiga shrugs and turns back to the dishes. He forgot all about those phone calls -- one of them would call the other and ask about something trivial, and then they'd spend five, ten minutes threatening to hang up while somehow managing to talk about other things too. He learned a lot about Aomine in those conversations and liked almost all of it. Sometimes he would hang up, heart pounding, and wonder if that was what it felt like to have a real boyfriend.

_No wonder I forgot,_ Taiga thinks. _It would have hurt too much to even think about those calls after what he did._ He remembers, with sudden clarity, erasing Aomine's phone number and mail address from his old cell. He remembers getting rid of that cell and shelling out for a smartphone because he didn't know how to change the ringtones, and every time the old phone rang, he kept hoping it was Aomine. Funny how a throwaway little remark can trigger memories he long thought have dissolved.

"How did you even know we used to talk on the phone, anyway?" he asks, glancing backwards.

Tetsuya squares him with a teacherly stare. "How was I supposed to not know? Every day, it was either 'Aomine told me about that place' or 'Aomine said that game sucks, let's try to play it' and so on. For a while I thought maybe you two were dating."

Taiga laughs, sincerely. It's funny, now, despite everything -- that Tetsuya would pick up on his crush so easily and not find it the least bit strange that both parties were male. Taiga didn't even come out to Tetsuya until after he came back from the States five years ago.

They bundle Seiichi up and take him out for some fresh air. When they return, Satsuki and Riko are already back with pizza, and Taiga gets a break from cooking for once. Then he has to turn in; shift starts at eight in the morning, and if the station gets lots of night calls, he won't get to sleep until he gets back the following morning.

But for a long time, he can't get to sleep. Some part of him -- a remnant of the naive eighteen-year-old he once was -- still has feelings for Aomine. Why else would he be so disappointed that Aomine's interest turned out to have been not in him but in Satsuki? It's like he's been rejected all over again. It pisses him off -- he's never been the sort of person to construct weird fantasy worlds in his head and then end up feeling emotional over them, unless he was really into somebody. And this is exactly what he's been doing ever since Aomine showed up again.

_"What time's your match against Kaijou tomorrow?" Taiga saw that it was Aomine, but the sound of his voice is still a pleasant surprise. He didn't think he'd call today._

_"Can't you look it up in your tournament schedule?" Taiga replies. "Why you gotta call me about every little thing? Do I look like 4-1-1 to you?"_

_"Four-one what? Just answer the question, Kagami, I don't have all night."_

_"Oh, really? Which idol's pictures are you jerking it to tonight? Or do you have a hot date with your new sex doll?"_

_"Shut up, that kind of thing's none of your business. Fine, I'll call Tetsu and ask him."_

_"You do that, because I sure as fuck am not gonna tell you. Bye."_

_"I get it, you're still mad you lost to me again, well, what can I tell you? You're just not good enough to win against me."_

_"My team's better than yours though; next time we'll prove it to you. We'll be taking the Winter Cup from you this time."_

_"It's cute how you think I care about your delusional fantasies, Kagami. I'm bored now. Also, hanging up."_

_"It's even cuter how you want to come and watch me play against Kaijou. Admit it, you spend your nights awake and scared that I'm gonna level up again and leave you behind."_

_"Like I'd lose any sleep over an asshole like you. The only one who can win against me is me; I keep proving it to you but you're just too stupid to realise it."_

_"That doesn't hurt at all coming from some Ahomine. I'm hanging up the phone."_

_"Fine, I'm gonna call Tetsu."_

_"Good luck; he's probably already turned his phone off -- it's almost midnight."_

_"Since when do you know what Tetsu's habits are?"_

_"Since we've been friends for three years. Jealous?"_

_Aomine snorts. "Like hell I am. Come on, just tell me; I've got a fucking history test in the morning."_

_"Eleven," Taiga says. "Good night."_

He wishes he hadn't picked up his phone when the call came for the Azabudai fire. If only he'd wrapped up individual practice two minutes sooner, he would have been in the shower when his beeper and phone went off. By the time he got out, it would have been too late. Another truck would've snagged a different volunteer from a different street corner. Someone else would have dragged Aomine out of his burning house. Aomine wouldn't have found out about Satsuki. They would have continued to live and work in the same city, never crossing paths, like millions of other people do every day.

*

"You coming out with us, Tai-kun?" Kenta asks as they get dressed after the game later that week.

"You guys are still going to karaoke? We lost, though," Taiga points out. 

"So? We've still got the away game on Saturday," Kenta says, folding down the index finger of his right hand with his left one. "And I scored four three-pointers in a row." He folds down another finger. "You stole the ball so beautifully from that crazy center of theirs." He folds down a third finger. "I could go on, but you get my point. There's always something to celebrate."

Taiga shakes his head. "Thanks, but I had to work a shift at the fire station yesterday, and I'm still a bit off-kilter. I'm gonna go home and try to catch up on sleep. Next time, all right?"

There was a time when he could pull a twenty-four hour shift and be back in perfect shape after a solid night's sleep, but maybe that time has already passed. Maybe that's why Lt Awamori keeps pushing him to make rank -- if he can't even work a regular shift, he can't advance in rank, either. 

Or maybe he should've gotten more than four hours' sleep before staying up for twenty-four. In other words, it's Aomine's fault.

He grabs the train home instead of running. The walk home from the station takes him past the playground where Satsuki and Riko take Seiichi to exercise.

Taiga does a double take when he spots Satsuki standing next to the seesaw, Seiichi's hand in hers. Isn't it past Seiichi's naptime? Taiga opens his mouth to call out to them, but then sees Aomine by the other end of the seesaw. He doesn't realise it's Aomine at first, because he's bowing low, his head down. He can't see Satsuki's face, but she's obviously in control of the situation; her back is set, shoulders squared, head up, not a hair out of place.

Taiga doesn't want to cause her any embarrassment, so he pulls back behind the soft drink vending machines at the edge of the playground and peers through the gap between them, ready to move if Aomine proves to be a threat despite the bowing. Aomine, lowering his head? There's something he never thought he would see.

Satsuki says something and gestures with her free hand. Aomine raises his eyes to meet hers and then straightens up, almost reluctantly. His facial expression is grave and determined, the face of a bearer of bad news.

Satsuki says something else, and Aomine shakes his head and opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again. He takes a step towards Satsuki, reaching out with his hand, and Taiga veers instantly around the vending machine and calls her name.

Seiichi turns towards the sound of his voice, lights up, yanks his hand away from Satsuki's, and totters towards him -- so steady on his feet already. Taiga reaches him halfway and hoists him up onto his shoulders. Shoulder rides are after all the reason Seiichi is always so excited to see him.

"What's going on?" he asks when he reaches Satsuki. "You okay?"

"What!" Seiichi yells for emphasis. Now that he's at the highest place he's ever known, he probably imagines he's emperor. An emperor who can only say the words "mama", "give", and "what".

"Aomine was just leaving," Satsuki says. "Weren't you?"

"Right," Aomine says, not looking at Taiga. "I'll call you later, Satsuki."

"It's Kuroko-san," she says and loops her arm through Taiga's. "Let's go home, Tai-chan."

As they get into the elevator, she starts giggling nervously and doesn't stop until they reach their floor

"I've always wanted to do that," Satsuki confesses after unlocking the door to her place. "Used to fantasise about him showing up to say he's sorry, and me just leaving him standing there alone. Does that make me a bad person?"

Taiga crouches down to unwrap Seiichi's scarf and hangs it on the little hook by the door. "No, I don't think so. He treated you like shit. Of course you'd want to stick it to him somehow. Anyone would."

"Well, that's what he was here for," Satsuki says, helping Taiga pull Seiichi's rubber booties off. "You know what he told me?"

"He looked like he was apologising."

"Well, he did apologise, but take a guess what he apologised _for_." She looks genuinely amused, and Taiga can only shrug.

"Just tell me."

"He said he was just trying to make a joke that day."

"Joke?" Taiga hangs Seiichi's jacket up and slaps his back lightly to let him know it's fine to run into the house. "When he said that you were, you know."

"Yeah wasting my nice big titties on a _girl_ ," Satsuki says, defiant. "He claims he already knew about Ricchan from his parents and that he was just trying to make a joke to lighten the mood. But I ran off crying and never came back, and he's _apparently_ never stopped regretting it." Her eyes have a strange shine to them, almost manic.

"Wow," Taiga offers, dumbstruck. "Do you think it's true?"

"I don't know," Satsuki says, taking off her own boots. "I just don't know. He's certainly _stupid_ enough to make such a joke under those circumstances. And he had the grace not to try and act like it was my fault for misunderstanding."

Taiga starts. "Really?"

"Yeah, that surprised me. He never liked apologising, so he was always really good at finding reasons why everything was someone else's fault. But he apologised properly. I've never seen him do such a thing before."

Taiga _was_ going to talk to Satsuki about what happened in the dressing room two months ago, but now he realises he probably shouldn't. After all, they've only been close like this for a few years, and Aomine was Satsuki's childhood friend. If Taiga is still nursing feelings for the asshole after being in puppy love with him for less than a year, obviously it's even more complicated for Satsuki. He doesn't want to add to that.

"Are you going to forgive him?" he asks. 

Satsuki's eyes are immediately reproachful. "Of course I'm not. I told him he's not welcome in my life after what he did to you."

Taiga's doesn't remember the last time anyone's stuck up for him like that -- or needed to. It feels really nice, so nice he hides his eyes from Satsuki. "Maybe he was joking then, too," he says, just to speak, just to hide his inability to verbalise his appreciation for her friendship. He doesn't really believe that Aomine was joking back then.

"No, I asked him why I'm supposed to believe him when I know what he did to you. And he told me that it was none of my business!" Satsuki says with disdain. "I said that even if you weren't my friend, it'd still be my business. It's because of people like him that Ricchan and I can't be together openly. That was when you showed up."

Taiga scratches his head. "Wow," he says again. "I guess I can forget about that nap I was going to take."

"You wanna nap with Sei-chan?" Satsuki offers.

"He'll never fall asleep if I'm there, you know that. He'll just want rides."

She laughs. "He does think you're like his own personal giant robot, doesn't he?"

They're clearly done talking -- Taiga can see that Satsuki needs time to herself. And so does he.

*

The paper with Aomine's photo is still on the table in his living room. Taiga throws it against the wall, hard -- _thwock_. It drops to the floor with a satisfying _thump_ , but he doesn't feel any better.

His tablet blares with the door buzzer alarm.

Taiga picks it up from the side table and swipes to open the downstairs video feed. He is only half surprised to see Aomine's face peering into the camera.

"Can you come down? I just want to talk to you. Hear me out once and I promise I'll leave you alone. I'll put it in writing if you want me to." 

Aomine's voice over the intercom is just like his phone voice, and Taiga feels a moment of unreality, like he's seventeen again and sprawled out in his bedroom with the phone on speaker. If he closes his eyes, he can imagine they're in the same room. But he won't close his eyes, not this time.

Aomine's face is really close to the camera, and Taiga can't help but stare, since Aomine can't see him right now. The face of his best-loved rival, eyes like midnight. Even now, even after all this time, beneath the grudges and resentment, looking at that face still makes Taiga's heart ache with longing, and he _hates_ himself for it.

Everyone's supposed to have that one person they can never forget, but he thought he's not met that person yet. 

_Why did it have to be you?_ Taiga thinks. He would do anything to forget this guy. He'd even agree to forget all of his past if that's what it would take. Or his whole life, even. Just wake up naked behind a dumpster someplace far away, like Minneapolis or Karachi or Buenos Aires. Start over.

"Look, Satsuki just told me more or less what happened," he says. "I guess you think if I tell her to forgive you, she'll do it. You're wrong and she won't. So don't bother. Just leave us alone already."

"It isn't about Satsuki," Aomine says. "It's about you. And me."

[tbc]


	5. Chapter 5

Aomine looks straight at the camera, and though Taiga _knows_ the video feed is one-way only, it sure as hell doesn't feel like it. It's like Aomine's staring all the way to the centre of his mind.

"I know all about you and me," Taiga says, averting his eyes. "Whatever you have to say now won't change a thing."

"Five minutes."

"I don't think so," Taiga says. Given the way he feels, facetime with Aomine would be a bad decision. He needs to just--

"Please."

It's the first time he's ever witnessed Aomine use that word, and he understands how Satsuki must have felt when she heard Aomine's apology. Is this why people fall for jerks -- because a word of kindness or even consideration from one feels like receiving a basket of diamonds?

_Fuck._

"Ninth floor of the station building, there's a little place called Querencia, you know it?" Taiga asks.

"The one with craft beer on tap and Spanish food? Yeah, I've been before."

"Meet me there in an hour," Taiga tells him. If he's going to talk to Aomine, it'll be on his own terms. In a public place where people know his name. Plus, Querencia is popular, so there's a time limit of one hour from the moment the food is brought out. If you don't order any food, it's one hour after the first round of drinks is served, unless it's a reservation for a group of ten or more. So he has a sure way out without needing to make a scene.

Aomine looks at his watch, frowns, and Taiga waits for him to refuse. _If he refuses, he can forget it._ Now that Taiga's made the decision to hear Aomine out, he's not going to drag things out for another day.

"Okay," Aomine says, glancing back at him. "I'll be there."

"Fine."

"Kagami?"

Taiga, who was about to swipe the slider to terminate the call, pauses. "What?"

"You'll come, right?"

"I said I would, so I will." He hangs up.

_No, really, so much for my fucking nap._

Taiga checks his bank account to make sure all the bill payments have been withdrawn, pitches the newspaper into the recycling pile, tidies Seiichi's toy corner: familiar things that help settle a mind balanced on the edge of panic. What was he thinking? Why did he agree? He decided long ago that moments of temporary weakness were not to run his life, so why?

He thinks about not showing up, but he hates breaking his word even to people who mean nothing, let alone people who once meant everything. He changes into dark jeans and a white button-down. Querencia isn't especially fancy, but it's not the sort of place where you can wear faded jeans and a team sweater unless they're obviously expensive, and Taiga's definitely aren't.

He texts Satsuki that he's going out, but he doesn't say when he'll be back. Chances are he's going to want to be alone after this, so he'll let the rest of them figure out their own dinner.

`You're going to meet with him, aren't you?` Satsuki texts back. `Need me to call and pretend to be a fire to bail you out?`

Taiga smiles ruefully at his phone. `No, it'll be fine. I've planned my own escape.`

`I'm going to tell Ricchan when she comes home. May I tell her about you?`

`Sure.` Now that Satsuki's gained some closure, it'll be good for her to put the whole thing to bed once and for all. If she's ready to tell Riko, then there is no need for the two of them to keep their promise any more.

*

He arrives on Querencia's floor fifty-five minutes after hanging up on Aomine and finds him standing in the hallway in front of the restaurant. His breath catches involuntarily: Aomine really is breathtakingly good-looking. If they didn't already know each other, this might have been a case of Man Steps out of Elevator and Walks Right Into the Future Love of his Life.

"You're here," Aomine says. His suit is different from the one he wore earlier, and he's changed his shirt from dark blue to white.

"Oh, well-spotted," Taiga mutters, glancing self-consciously down at his jeans and wondering if he should've worn a suit after all. _I guess he was determined to show me up._ "Let's go inside."

"Kagami-san, Aomine-san," says the floor manager, Aoki, rushing up to them. "Welcome. I don't believe I was aware that you two are acquainted."

_Aoki knows Aomine?_ "We played together sometimes when we were brats," Taiga says, doing his best to keep his face smooth. "Any good seats in the house tonight?"

"A table for two just opened up in your favourite section -- will that do, or have you got anyone else joining you this evening?"

Taiga shakes his head. "No one else."

Aoki glances at Aomine. "Come to think of it, both of you like to sit near the kitchen, don't you? Isn't that odd?"

"Extremely," Aomine confirms as Aoki leads the way to the back of the restaurant, rattling off what's on tap.

Taiga follows them mutely to a window table overlooking the street. Querencia's not exactly a _gay_ place; restaurants rarely are, but you'd have to try hard to miss the giant rainbow flag behind the bar. Why would Aomine of all people frequent a place like this? Could it be that he's really been stalking Taiga? But that doesn't really make any sense. Taiga doesn't even come here that often; in fact, he hasn't been here once in the three or so months since he and Aomine crossed paths again.

"So why do _you_ like to sit near the kitchen?" Aomine asks after they're seated and Aoki's departed with their drink orders.

_Really? Small talk?_ "I like the sounds," Taiga says. "They're relaxing."

"Oh yeah, you were kind of a wizard in the kitchen since forever, weren't you," Aomine mutters, staring out of the window. "I like it because this way the food is hottest."

"Thanks for the info," Taiga says. "Are you really going to waste your five minutes on telling me where you like to sit in a restaurant?"

"So you dragged me out here for five minutes?" Aomine asks, raising one eyebrow.

Taiga sighs. "Aomine, we're not on a date. I only agreed to meet you because you asked nicely."

Aoki carries glasses of beer over and sets them down on the table. "Sure you won't eat? The boss brought in a shipment of smoked paprika so the chicken pie has been better than ever."

"That does sound good," Taiga says, handing over the cash for his drink. "But some other time, okay? We're just here to talk."

Aoki tosses her braid over her shoulder and grins. "Then I'll leave you to it. I'm minding the floor if you want another round."

Before putting his wallet away, Aomine pulls out a business card and slides it across the table. "If you want it."

Taiga doesn't look at it. He picks up his glass, mumbles a perfunctory _cheers_ with a half-hearted glance at Aomine, and drinks. It doesn't taste as good as he remembers. _Must be the company._

Aomine drains half his glass in one go and expels a harsh breath as he sets it back down. "I'm an asshole," he says, squaring Taiga with eyes so clear Taiga's heart begins to flutter, and at first he doesn't even register what Aomine said.

"Was that what you wanted to tell me?" Taiga asks after it does register. "No offense, but that's not exactly brand new information."

Aomine sighs. "I mean for what I said to you. What I did to you. After the Winter Cup final."

Taiga takes another drink. "I already knew that too." _Is he going to apologise to me? Like he apologised to Satsuki? Do I even want him to?_

"You _don't_ know that I was lying."

It's as though the din of the restaurant around them disappears, and all Taiga can hear is the faint drizzle that's started up outside the window, and in it, Aomine's voice. "Lying?" he echoes.

"I didn't… I didn't fake it when I kissed you," Aomine says. "That was real. But I was just going through some shit and I got... spooked."

"Define shit," Taiga says, stalling for time. His mind reels, cycling through those terrible moments and looking for a reason to disbelieve Aomine's words now. There isn't one. He was always sure that Aomine was into kissing him. That was part of why it hurt so much that he rejected Taiga anyway.

"My girlfriend dumped me two weeks before because I wouldn't have sex with her. I couldn't. I always liked looking at pictures of women but looking at the real thing and touching her did nothing. I thought maybe she just wasn't the girl for me."

Taiga blinks at him slowly. He's never known Aomine had a girlfriend. He distinctly remembers the two of them making fun of each other on the phone for being virgins, multiple times. If Aomine had a girlfriend, then why did he keep it from Taiga?

"Then you said what you said and I fucking knew right then why she wasn't the girl for me. I didn't think I was… like this, before you told me how you felt. And even then I didn't really believe it."

_Like this._ Unless this is another one of Aomine's "jokes", Taiga's going to have to come to terms with a completely different interpretation of one of the most important moments from his past. His stomach roils. 

"Fuck, that's-- that makes it even _worse_." Taiga doesn't mean to say it out loud but he's so upset it's a wonder he's managing to speak in an even tone. Where there were once smouldering embers, a fire rages again, and he's not sure how he's going to put it out this time.

Aomine winces. "I didn't know you'd take it so hard. I was sure you'd get over it and just forget about me. You were always good at shrugging off a loss and moving on. I didn't think it would matter that much to you."

"You didn't think it--? You--" Taiga breaks off, realising that he was about to say something far too honest. _Everything I believed about love, you destroyed it._

"When I kissed you, when I felt how you reacted, I lost it. I spent my whole fucking life until that moment sure that I was into women, but the way touching your body made me feel, I-- I wasn't prepared. So I blamed you. I thought it was your fault, somehow, and I just wanted to hurt you. I fucked up, Kagami. I was a kid and I was stupid and I didn't know."

"Shit," Taiga says. "Why the fuck did you have to tell me this now? Couldn't you have left it alone? What good is this going to do?" His voice is rising; his chest feels bound in a white-hot barrel. He drains the last of his beer.

Aomine looks away. "I-- look, when my boss told me you were the one who pulled me out of that house, I thought it was, I dunno, fate or some shit. But then you told me to leave you alone, and I was going to. But I just. I can't."

"You can't?" Taiga repeats dully. "What the fuck's that supposed to mean? You're going to follow me around for the rest of my life now?"

"Can't we just reboot this?" Aomine asks, leaning forward. "Fix it?"

Taiga is not even going to dignify that with a response. Who the fuck does this guy think he is? He signals to Aoki, who nods and walks back to the bar.

"You're all I think about," Aomine says, seeming to take Taiga's silence as encouragement. "I can't eat or sleep properly. My work stats are in the shitter because I keep fucking daydreaming like a little kid."

"Is that supposed to make me feel sorry for you?"

Aomine shuts his eyes briefly. "Fair enough. Will you think about it?"

"I had ten years to think about it," Taiga says. "Maybe in another ten years I'll change my mind."

"Then I'll wait ten years."

Taiga rolls his eyes. "Spare me the fucking melodrama. We aren't children. You've got a kid of your own, for fuck's sake."

Aomine frowns. "I… what kid?"

"Oh, please," Taiga snaps. "I saw the kid's room when your house was on fire."

"That wasn't my house though," Aomine says. "I went there to get some information from a mobster's ex-wife, but he showed up halfway through, knocked me out from behind and then set the second floor on fire before taking her and the kid hostage and running. Didn't they debrief you at the fire station?"

"I-- uh. I'm a volunteer, so I don't always go to those," Taiga says, somewhat abashed. He was so eager to put Aomine out of his mind that he didn't even ask about the circumstances of the Azabudai fire.

Aoki brings Taiga's second beer, and Aomine asks her for another too while Taiga pays.

Taiga doesn't like feeling like he did something wrong. "Anyway, kid or no kid, I'm not interested. I'm not gonna get involved with a closet case."

"I'm only not out at work," Aomine says. "It's impossible." He sounds so resigned that it kind of tweaks Taiga's heart a little, even though he's still mad enough to spit nails bent into figure eights.

"When I was in police school, my roommate must have picked some vibe up from me. Tried to force himself on me one night. I fought him off and people came over and it turned into a big scandal; he was expelled without even an investigation. The same thing happens to women recruits all the time and the women are the ones more likely to be thrown out, since everyone assumes they must have provoked it somehow. I came out, they'd just find a way to force me to retire."

"Tokyo's finest," Taiga mutters. Half his second glass is already gone, and he's starting to feel a little bit mellow. Maybe he should quit drinking now, before he accidentally gets soused enough to take Aomine seriously.

Aomine shrugs. "It is what it is. If I want to do my job, I have to keep my mouth shut. People don't ask, I don't tell."

Taiga snorts. "Military style."

Aomine looks at him. "Even so, you won't even consider it, will you?"

Taiga inhales deeply. "No. What you did to me ten years ago doesn't get undone just because you were gay all along. Let's leave it at that." 

He could drag this out and force Aomine to apologise -- which he still hasn't done, not properly. He could keep letting Aomine see his anger and disappointment, but he won't. It's enough that they've cleared it all up. They can both move on now.

Aomine finishes his second beer, holds up his index finger for another, and barks a short laugh. "I guess to you I'm a walking stereotype of the gay guy who's so self-hating he's doing more damage to gays than heteros do."

"Don't be an idiot," Taiga snaps. "That's just something straight people like to tell each other so they can pretend they aren't the fucking problem."

"I wasn't really serious," Aomine says with a look so contrite Taiga wants to smile. But before he can, Aomine continues talking. "I never forgot you, you know. I always wondered how you were doing." Aoki brings Aomine's beer, and Taiga orders a third one too, for the road. They have twenty minutes left before they're politely asked to free the table for another waiting customer.

"I haven't exactly been invisible," he says after Aoki departs. "All you had to do was pick up a basketball magazine."

Aomine leans back in his chair and drapes his arm over the back, beer in the other hand. "I quit basketball after you and me fell out. I blamed basketball, too. All those sweaty guys, and I was always staring at them, looking for a strong opponent. No wonder I ended up a homo, I thought."

Taiga looks at him with incredulity. "Are you serious?"

Aomine raises his beer in a who-knows gesture.. "It made sense to me at the time. And I guess I was afraid of facing you again. Deep down I always knew you weren't at fault. After a while I started going to Pride hoping to run into you by accident."

Taiga's eyes widen. "Marching?"

"Once," Aomine says with a small half-smile. "In sunglasses and face paint. Usually I'm in uniform, doing crowd control. A lot of cops hate the job; afraid to catch the gay. So they don't question why anyone volunteers."

"I'm glad I've got a friend who makes it his business to spread the gay around," Taiga remarks, thinking of Kenta.

Aomine gives him a long look. "I've never seen you there, though."

"I've never gone," Taiga says. He doesn't owe anyone an explanation, least of all this guy, but he doesn't want Aomine to think he's got no pride. "My Flares contract says I'm not allowed to draw any kind of public attention to my personal life." The contract doesn't specify that it's because of his sexual orientation, but it might as well; no other player except Kenta has a similar clause in his contract.

"What about going incognito?"

Taiga shrugs. "Chances are someone would recognise me. Fans can be scary resourceful."

"You have fans, huh."

"Nothing like the idol fans," Taiga says. "Not like those girls who hung around what's his name? That blond model who was in middle school with you and Tetsuya. Played for one of the Kanagawa schools? Oh, right -- Kise."

"Damn, there's another name I haven't heard in a while."

And just like that, Taiga snaps back to reality. He can sit here and pretend they're just a couple of old chums catching up and reminiscing about the good old days, but they've never been that to each other, and they never can be.

Aoki shows up with his last beer.

"I'm gonna go after this," Taiga says after she leaves. "So if you've got anything else to tell me, say it now." He takes a drink and puts the glass down. Definitely feeling pretty mellow.

"You're really hot," Aomine says. "I hope whoever you end up with tells you that every day."

Taiga's composure shatters like spring ice. "Why the fuck are you trying to provoke me?"

"It's just a compliment. Why are you getting bent out of shape for?"

"Because it's not your place to pay me such compliments, for fuck's sake."

Aomine straightens up and puts his glass down. "Aren't you just scared?"

Taiga slaps the table with both hands, and the two glasses rattle. "Don't fucking say that like it's some awful thing," he growls. "You just told me that you did what you did because _you_ were scared."

"I was a kid."

"So? I was a kid, too, but I really loved you, Aomine, and you broke my heart. I'm not gonna let you do that again."

Aomine's mouth gets tight and he looks away. "So what, it's payback?"

"Yeah, if that's how you want to see it. I don't really care. I'm getting out of here."

The two and a bit glasses of beer in him have other ideas, and Taiga has to make a beeline for the bathroom before quickly sketching a salute to Aoki and running to catch the elevator down.

He doesn't think to check who's in the elevator before getting in, and he's again face to face with Aomine, who stands by the button panel with his back to the wall next to it. Taiga turns his back wordlessly and watches the doors shut with resignation. He would move away, but there are four other people in the elevator, making it cramped enough without him trying to shove his way to the corner furthest from Aomine.

On the eighth floor, three portly old ladies in loud Hawaiian shirts squeeze into the elevator, and Taiga is pushed back directly against Aomine. He tries to make himself as small as possible, and he can see Aomine raise both hands into the air in his peripheral vision, but he's still got Aomine's -- well, everything -- behind him and a giant purse digging into his thigh, and no way out except to shove past the heavily pregnant woman on his right, which is obviously out of the question.

_Just seven floors. Two minutes, give or take. I can do this._

Aomine's breath on the back of his neck makes Taiga suppress shiver after shiver. He's always been weak to being touched there, and knowing that it's Aomine doesn't help. For all his faults, Aomine is Taiga's type in every way, and now that Taiga understands that he's got nothing to fear from Aomine, it's as though his body has independently decided it knows best what he really needs out of life. Namely, Aomine's dick.

This close, he can smell Aomine's cologne -- it's not the same one he used to wear in high school, which is too bad for Taiga, because if it were that one, the nausea it always inspires would have been enough to make this stop. It's faint but powerful enough to matter -- a little spicy, a little sweet, good enough that Taiga wants to get closer and fill his whole head with it.

He thinks of Steve, a friend from college who kept fucking this one guy who was all sorts of bad news because he just couldn't help himself. Taiga thought that Steve just had no self-control, but he understands Steve really well all of a sudden.

All of the good and valid reasons why he should run as far away from Aomine as he can are still there; he can see them clearly, and he agrees with them wholeheartedly. But they're all in another universe where Taiga isn't pressed up against Aomine, where Aomine's breaths aren't making him shiver and gradually relax into Aomine's body, wishing Aomine would just pull him close.

Aomine exhales shakily and tips his head forward over Taiga's shoulder, just a little, and Taiga notices that Aomine is as hard as he is, pressed snugly up against Taiga's ass. 

"Sorry," Taiga mutters, using the formal register. _Just apologising for accidentally elbowing a total stranger, everyone. No big deal._

Everyone has that one person they can never forget, and Taiga supposes everyone must also have that one person whose touch turns them into a writhing mass of exposed nerve endings. It's just his luck that for him, Aomine is both.

The elevator arrives on the ground floor, and Taiga wants to sprint as fast as he can, but there is a large group of people waiting to get in. He has to push past them as politely as possible, apologising with every step, lest someone recognise him and tell some bored reporter that the Flares' power forward was stumbling drunkenly out of a bar and tossing people out of his way. 

Aomine gets in front of him somehow, takes his hand and _flows_ through the small crowd like some fucking superhero -- but he isn't, is he; he's a cop with crowd control experience. Even his stupid hand is enough to make Taiga's insides quiver; he wants to tell Aomine not to touch him, but who is he kidding? He can think of no better uses for himself other than to be touched by Aomine.

Aomine drags him behind a vending machine, and Taiga puts his hands on him, like he's wanted to for so long, firm shoulders and broad chest and narrow hips; his pulse races so fast he's almost gasping for breath. He's been this turned on before -- after long and involved foreplay. But no, Aomine did this just by fucking _breathing_ on him.

"Just once, okay, just this once," Aomine whispers against Taiga's temple. "I'll keep my promise, please, Kagami, I want you so bad. Just… just give me tonight."


	6. Chapter 6

_Give me tonight._

Taiga's exhale comes shaky and brittle. His hands rest on the sides of Aomine's upper chest; he wants to pull them away. He wants to keep them right there. He has it in him to refuse; his wits aren't completely gone. He also has it in him to accept, and that scares him the most.

He's good at making decisions quickly, even impulsively, except in matters like this. Aomine's ghost always loomed deep in his sense memory. _Don't let this guy do what he wants, he'll just hurt you._ But now, the ghost is gone, because this _is_ Aomine. The worst part of every heartbreak is the element of surprise, and Taiga has associated Aomine with painful surprises for so long that he's braced for one even though he is almost sure it isn't going to happen.

At this point, whether Taiga walks or stays, he will regret it. He'll regret not taking the opportunity to find out what they could have been. He'll regret becoming another piece of living proof that selfish assholes always get the last laugh. Which will weigh least?

He pulls his hands away and lets them drop down to his sides. "Just once is all you want? One night?"

Aomine leans a little closer. "I want your every night."

Taiga's heart does a swooping dive. "You can't... ask for that." 

"I know." Aomine looks into Taiga's eyes. "I'm not. I heard your answer upstairs."

His face is close enough for Taiga to count every eyelash, and for a stupefying second Taiga actually tries. His heart will always have a place with Aomine's name on the door.

It's never going to be a clean break for them, but it has to break. And Taiga would rather not leave this stone unturned: he knows it'll corrode him from within, the not knowing. He is sure he'll regret that more than anything else, and that regret will drive him to do something much more stupid than staying tonight: to look for Aomine again.

Taiga breaks eye contact. "And you'll stay away, after?"

Aomine's reply is a few beats too late. "I will."

"Promise me," Taiga says, clenching his hands into fists. "You'll go back to your life and leave us to ours. Me and Satsuki both."

Aomine sighs. "You don't have to sleep with me for that, Kagami. I'll do that even if you walk away now."

Taiga looks at him. "You will?"

"Yeah," Aomine says, his face troubled.

Taiga contemplates saying something cutting, like _I wouldn't sleep with you without a fringe benefit_ and walking away. As satisfying as the thought is, he knows doing that will only make things worse. He can't ask Aomine to stay away from him if he can't stay away himself. And if he walks away now, he knows he'll be back. It's that simple.

"Where's your place?" Taiga asks. His apartment is probably closer, but he's not letting Aomine into his house any more than he's letting him into his life.

"Two stations south," Aomine says. "But we can't go there. I'm staying at the Ibis across the street for now. Come on." He starts walking back towards the station building.

Taiga raises his eyebrows. following. "You're staying at a hotel near my house, of all the places?"

"It's not like that," Aomine protests, a faint flush appearing at the tops of his cheeks. "I'm letting a witness stay at my place until a trial in two weeks."

Taiga frowns. " _Your_ place? Doesn't Japan have witness protection?" They stop at the crosswalk.

"This person's a foreigner," Aomine explains after pushing the pedestrian light button. "Hotels require foreigner passports to be photocopied, and she might be found that way."

"Can't you ask the hotel to bend the rules in this case? You're police."

"People talk," Aomine says. "If we ask management to keep it quiet, they will, but someone might gossip. And you never know which hotel has mob ties." He glances at Taiga as they begin to cross the street. "I'm not making this up!"

"No, it's just weird," Taiga says. "Why your place? I thought you were some big shot detective."

"I _am_ a big shot detective. That's why it's my responsibility."

Taiga can't help but laugh. Aomine is the only person he's ever known who will matter-of-factly acknowledge his own greatness like that. He used to secretly think that was really cool. He still does, a little.

"What's funny?" Aomine asks.

"Nothing, I was just thinking you haven't changed."

The hotel doors slide open, and they walk into a too-hot lobby just as a drizzle starts up again outside.

"I've changed," Aomine says as they wait for the elevator. He sounds a bit peevish. "Would we really be here otherwise?"

And Taiga remembers why they're here at this hotel in the first place. He has half a mind to flee, but the other half is dead-set on going through with this. It wins.

 _Ding._ Aomine, Taiga, a few hotel guests, and a pizza delivery lady pile inside the elevator -- it's the sort with an attendant to push floor buttons, and Taiga is relieved that at least there's no chance he and Aomine will end up alone, get started a little early. He wants to, and from the looks Aomine is stealing at Taiga, he's got the same idea. They're in public. _Every last shred of my common sense goes the entire fuck out the window when it comes to this guy._

They alight on the fifth floor. Aomine has to swipe his key card a few times before the lock relents and the door opens into a standard-issue Western-style hotel room with two beds pushed together to make a bigger one. Flimsy white curtains, made-in-Taiwan coffee maker, ironing board taking up almost half the empty floor space. Taiga tries to picture Aomine ironing his clothes and can't quite get there.

Taiga begins to unbutton his shirt.

"Wait," Aomine says.

Taiga turns to look at him, but doesn't stop with the shirt. "What am I waiting for?"

Aomine leans his back against the door. "I dunno. A drink? I have whiskey."

"I'd rather not do this drunk," Taiga says, removing his shirt. "If you've changed your mind--"

"Like I'd change my mind," Aomine says, his eyes lighting with challenge. He crosses the distance between them and pulls Taiga close, and the feeling of deja vu is stronger than ever. It's like they're back in that empty corridor and Aomine's going to kiss him in that violently clumsy way he had back then, and then he's going to shatter Taiga's world.

Taiga turns his head aside before Aomine's lips can make contact. "I didn't come here to make love to you."

"I guess not, huh," Aomine says with a light snort. He moves his mouth to the side of Taiga's neck, just beneath his ear. "How about here?"

"That's fine," Taiga says. It's more than fine. Aomine's tongue glides along the most sensitive spots, some that Taiga didn't know existed. Is it some special skill of Aomine's or just the fact that Aomine makes him hotter than anyone ever has? Taiga doesn't even care.

He thought this would be frantic and over before he knew it, but Aomine takes his time, pinning Taiga against the wall and undoing his jeans button by button one-handed while kissing Taiga's neck, licking the shell of his ear, stroking Taiga's face with his free hand. The smell of his cologne fills Taiga up just like he wanted, but still it's not enough.

Once Aomine's worked Taiga's cock free and pushed his pants onto the floor, he kneels, and Taiga bites his lower lip as he watches Aomine stare at his dick like it's a triple cheeseburger. "Don't look like you're about to eat it," he complains.

Aomine glances up at him. "No?" He wraps his hand around Taiga's cock, nice and snug. He brings his thumb up and rubs it flat against the head. "What if I want to?"

Taiga tries not to moan as Aomine goes to work on him, but gives it up as a bad job right away. He doesn't know what is so fucking special about Aomine's tongue; it feels like it's mystically connected to every pleasure centre in Taiga's body. Aomine could lick the tip of his nose and Taiga would go from half-interested to rock-hard in about three seconds, so when Aomine's tongue teases his slit, Taiga can only squeeze his eyes shut and pant.

Aomine grips Taiga's dick firmly at the base and sucks it, fast, tight; Taiga's hands clench and unclench as soft heat whispers through his lower belly, as Aomine's mouth makes wet and sloppy sounds that only add to the tension mounting in his balls.

Taiga touches Aomine's hair. "S-stop, I'll-- just put it in me, damn."

Aomine immediately lets go, gets up from his knees and presses his still-clothed body against Taiga, as if trying to push him right into the wall. "No, I've told you, I'm not after your ass."

"Why not?" Taiga asks, a little offended. "It's a nice ass."

"Yeah," Aomine breathes as he begins to unbuckle his belt. "So's mine."

"You're a _bottom_?"

Aomine lets his expensive suit pants drop to the floor next to Taiga's jeans. "Yeah, with you. Don't tell me you're a committed bottom."

"I'm not a committed anything," Taiga says, pulling Aomine in again and beginning to peel his boxers off. "I just never thought you were the type. That makes me even more excited to fuck you."

Aomine, who was wiggling out of his underpants, freezes. "Say that again."

"What?"

"That you're gonna fuck me," Aomine whispers, sending a shiver down Taiga's back.

Taiga puts his hands on Aomine's ass and squeezes. "I'm gonna fuck you."

Aomine bites Taiga's shoulder lightly. "I'll get the lube."

He takes his shirt off and throws it to the floor before half-kneeling on the bed and beginning to rummage in a duffel bag on the floor. Taiga's treated to a view of Aomine's backside so frank he can't ignore it; he climbs up onto the bed and sits down behind him, grabs his hips and bites softly down on one ass cheek.

"Hey," Aomine grouses, tossing a bright yellow bottle onto the bed. "Don't just start eating a person."

"That's rich coming from you," Taiga returns. pulling him even closer and spreading him open with mild trepidation. Usually guys who don't bottom often or at all don't really take care of things back there, leading to, well, forestation -- but Aomine's clean and bare and really soft. Taiga leans in and swipes his tongue across the hole.

It twitches, and Aomine hisses. "You won't kiss me on the mouth but you'll lick my ass?" Taiga can't see his face from this position, he can hear the smirk.

"Your ass never said a bad word to me," Taiga says, working the lube bottle open. He holds it over Aomine's ass and lets the lube drip right onto Aomine's skin, drawing a gasp as it slides down. Taiga brushes two fingers against Aomine's hole. "What, you don't like it?" He leans in for another lick -- flavourless lube, his favourite kind -- and then slides his middle finger inside, nice and slow.

Aomine moans softly and pushes back, drawing Taiga's finger deeper. Taiga adds another finger and focuses on stretching Aomine open for the next little while, until Aomine's moans are almost constant and he's shamelessly fucking himself on Taiga's fingers.

"Oh, you know what's up, don't you," Taiga says, peering over the top of his ass. "And here I worried this was your first time." He didn't worry about anything of the sort, but he doesn't want to lose himself in Aomine's pleasure, so he has to keep talking.

Aomine cranes his neck and shows Taiga some teeth. "Are you gonna fuck me or are you just gonna talk to my ass all night long?"

"I don't know, your ass really is so much nicer to me than your face ever was," Taiga remarks, pulls his fingers out, and gives Aomine's ass a light slap. "Are you sure that's enough prep?"

"Yeah," Aomine says, lowering his pelvis. "Let me turn around, though. I wanna see your face."

Taiga, who was about to go get a condom from his jeans, sits back down heavily. They've kept it light so far, just a couple of guys blowing off some steam. It's enough that Taiga's been able to keep his emotions at bay. But something as intimate as being face-to-face, that… well, that could be bad. "You sure?"

"Yeah. You don't have to look at me if you don't want to, though. I get it."

Taiga shrugs, gets the condom on, lubes that up some more, and kneels between Aomine's spread legs. "Lift."

When he pushes inside Aomine a few moments later, Aomine breathes in sharply through clenched teeth, and Taiga slows down until Aomine's breathing steadies. "Want to stop?"

"No," Aomine growls and lifts his ass higher. "Come on, move."

Exhaling, Taiga inches forward, watching Aomine's face for any signs of discomfort, though that's getting harder and harder as the grip around his cock intensifies and he just wants to go all the way in so he can be wrapped in that impossible heat, all of him. Then he's in, and Aomine clenches around him, and then Taiga senses he's allowed to move, so he does, slow and shallow at first, then deeper and harder until he realises that Aomine's moving _with_ him.

It's as though Aomine can sense what Taiga needs, can anticipate the slightest shift in rhythm and adjust his own movements. It reminds Taiga of how it felt when they fought in the Zone together, pure physical instinct communicated without even touching, except now that they're touching, the feeling is amplified. The peak of pleasure is assured; there's no frantic trying to find the right pace, the right angle, the right speed -- it's already perfect, they're perfect together like this. Time is elsewhere; Taiga has no idea if they've been here for one minute or forty.

He slides his arms around Aomine's neck and leans down into him, wanting to be as close as possible, to feel as much of Aomine's gorgeous body against him as possible, and when he feels he's gotten close enough, he comes with a kind of cry he's never made before, or will again.

"Don't-stop-keep-going," Aomine moans, and Taiga does, and Aomine _writhes_ beneath him, spilling messy and hot all over Taiga's belly, and that's a first for Taiga too; he's never made anyone come like this before. He pulls out carefully and snaps the condom off, ties it shut and sits up to pitch it into the wastebasket. 

Doesn't miss, though he wouldn't be surprised if he did. Some people talk about having transcendent religious experiences, well, Taiga's pretty sure he had one just now, and it was over before he even noticed.

He raises his head to look at Aomine. The afterglow winks right out as his insides turn to ice. Aomine's crying, and he must have been for a while. His head's turned to the side, his eyes stare blankly at the wall, and tears run down his face into a sizeable wet stain on the pillowcase. 

Panic fills Taiga. "Did I-- have I... hurt you?" he asks. He was feeling so good that he assumed Aomine must have been too, because of the way Aomine moved with him. He starts to reach for Aomine's face to try and comfort him, but Aomine hits his hand away with so much force it stings.

"Don't! Don't look at me. It wasn't you," Aomine says in a choked voice and hides his face in the crook of his elbow. "I did this to myself."

 _He regrets it,_ Taiga realises, and his own regret arrives as if on cue, shattering the last lingering remnants of the warmth deep in his gut. 

It's not even the regret he expected. He thought he'd be sore over giving Aomine more proof that he can do whatever the hell he wants to people and still get laid. But now that it's happened, now that Taiga knows what could have been, he wishes he had never found out. And he's sure that same feeling is the source of Aomine's tears.

"Shit," Taiga manages through clenched teeth. "I'm-- Shit, Aomine, we could've been so--" He breaks off. There's no point in saying such a thing now. Or ever. Suddenly all the anger he's held in abeyance floods him like southern California summer, and his eyes sting with helpless, furious tears.

They should never have done this.

"I'm taking a shower first," Aomine mutters, avoiding eye contact. Taiga watches him turn the corner into the bathroom, and a second wave of regret arrives. Looking at that perfectly proportioned body that Taiga used to dream about for years only reminds him that he can never see it like this again. He grabs a tissue from the box on the bedside table and wipes his stomach dry.

As Taiga gets dressed, rage builds a taller and taller fire in him; he listens to the shower going and resents Aomine for being the first to wash it all away, to rid himself of the smell of them together. He can't wait to get the fuck out of here so he can do the same. _I'll dump these clothes too._ It sounded like Aomine expects Taiga to shower here, but Taiga's already decided he's not staying long enough for Aomine to come out of the bathroom. No clean break was ever possible; they both knew that before they came here. No point in dragging it out now.

By the time he's done, he's so angry that despite all his wise and rational thoughts, he wants nothing more than to burst into the bathroom before leaving and tell Aomine exactly what he thinks of him. What he'll always think of him no matter how good it felt to be together.

Instead, he picks up the hotel memo pad from the little plastic tray next to the television and writes, _I wish I'd left you for dead._ He tears the piece of paper off, crumples it up in his fist, but still he feels that Aomine deserves to know the full extent of Taiga's dislike.

Taiga smooths the note out and places it on top of the pillow, then gets his shoes on and walks out just as the shower shuts off. He takes the stairs down; the elevator waiting area is visible from Aomine's doorstep, and he never wants to see or be seen by Aomine.

Ten minutes and a brisk, sobering walk later, Taiga lets himself into his apartment and wonders why the lights are on.

The answer -- or, rather, answers, as there are two of them -- are sleeping on his couch, sitting side by side, Satsuki's head on Riko's shoulder. Taiga contemplates waking them but then spots the empty carton of ice cream and the half-empty bottle of whiskey on the table. Riko is apt to take that bottle to his head if he wakes her up now.

Taiga shakes his head, pulls a blanket out of the futon closet, and covers them as best he can, then locks himself in the bathroom.

 _This_ is his life. People who will pass out on his couch while waiting to provide emotional support in the form of sweetened milk fat and alcohol. Not a sharp-tongued ex-rival who'll break his heart and then cry about it as if he's got any right to feel bad.

Taiga's heart will always have a place with Aomine's name on the door, that much remains true despite his fury. But that door must be shut tight, key snapped in two right in the lock.

[tbc]


	7. Chapter 7

*

The apartment door slams, and Taiga pauses his game to look around. Riko stands in the doorway, hands on her hips, her facial expression suggesting he's done something exceedingly stupid. He's sure he hasn't seen that face on her since she was still Seirin's basketball coach.

"Are you going to talk about it or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

"What?" Taiga asks, turning back to his game controller, though he doesn't unpause.

"I'll give you a what!" Riko snaps, stomping inside. She takes a seat next to him, yanks the controller out of his hands, and tosses it to the opposite end of the couch. "You don't leave the house except for team practice, you barely eat, you've taken extended leave from the fire station, and last I heard your coach is benching you because you can't get your head in the game. It's been two weeks. What the hell did Aomine _do_?"

Has it really been two weeks? It feels much shorter than that. "I don't want to talk about it."

She smacks the back of his head. "I don't care what you want. We're worried about you."

Taiga rubs his head. "Ow. If you worry about me so much, you could try not giving me a concussion every time I say something you don't wanna hear."

Riko purses her lips. "Please. You won't get a concussion from a delicate little woman striking you once. Thick skull like yours."

"I'll give you the little part, but I dunno about delicate," Taiga says and ducks as she lunges for his head again.

"Don't try to change the subject. You can't go on like this."

"I don't plan to," Taiga says. moving his arms up and back, lacing his fingers together and resting his head on his palms. "I'm thinking about moving back to LA."

Riko's eyes widen. "You what?"

Taiga sighs. "I said I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about a lot of things, really. Like what I want out of life, and where I see myself in ten years. Like what happened when I went with Aomine. Like how I'm the world's biggest fucking asshole."

He had no plans on confiding in anyone, but now that Riko's here demanding it, he's surprised it took him this long to get it out in the open.

" _You're_ the world's biggest asshole," Riko repeats, blinking. "Aomine must have done a real number on your head for you to say such a thing after what he did to you."

"He's gay," Taiga says. "How's that for a real number?"

Riko frowns. "Are you saying that makes everything okay?"

"No," Taiga says. "It doesn't. I mean, it hurts less, knowing he didn't really mean what he said. But it doesn't change anything that happened."

"Well, then, what's the problem? What did you guys do?"

Taiga turns his head towards the kitchen and stares at the clock display on the stove.

Riko gasps. "You _didn't_."

Taiga shrugs. He knows what she means and she knows what he means, but all of a sudden he feels like he's thirteen and getting the Talk from his mom and dad.

"You've had feelings for him all along, haven't you?" Riko asks after a long pause.

Taiga offers another shrug. "It doesn't matter now."

"So what, you had yourselves a little tumble for old time's sake, is that it? Now he's gone back to his life and you're left holding the bag again?"

"It's not like that," Taiga says.

"So tell me how it is!" Riko exclaims. "You're obviously in need of perspective."

"What makes your perspective so different?" Taiga mutters.

"I haven't spent ten years nursing a grudge against this guy. Hell, I barely remember what he even looks like."

Taiga can't imagine how anyone who has ever met Aomine could possibly forget anything about him. "Aren't you mad about what he did to Satsuki?"

Riko shakes her head. "I knew nothing about any of this until Satsuki told me, and by then he already apologised. Of course I'm pissed at him for having hurt her, but how I see the whole situation is different from you guys."

"It doesn't matter how you see the situation, though," Taiga insists. "It's finished. It's gonna stay finished."

Riko gives him a look full of something like pity. "You won't even try?"

"I don't want to," Taiga says with a shake of his head. "If I'm going to be with somebody, I want it to be like--" He's about to say _you and Satsuki_ but he catches himself. The last thing he wants is for Riko to feel responsible for any of this.

Riko grins slightly. "Like me and Satsuki?"

"I dunno," Taiga says, flushing. "I guess."

"What you see isn't all there is to us, you know," Riko says, staring at the TV, where the screensaver has replaced the paused battle. "When straight couples aren't perfect, everyone says that's just how life is, couples will fight. But when people like us have so much as a disagreement over which wine to order with dinner, suddenly it's proof that our relationship is drawn on water with a stick."

"But I'm--" Taiga begins, but Riko holds up a hand. 

"I know that. Satsuki knows that. But it can't be helped. We got used to being like this before you became a part of our lives. We have fights just like any couple. There are things we've never agreed on. I get jealous. She gets jealous. We deal with all that on our own time, at our own pace. So don't use us as some kind of yardstick. We're not perfect. We've just mastered one hell of a unified front."

Taiga stars at the stove clock again. "Neither of you threw the other one away."

Riko puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. "I know. But he came back for you, didn't he?"

Taiga laughs bitterly. "After ten years?"

Riko squeezes his shoulder again, stronger this time. "Listen, I'm just saying. If you're so cut up about it that it's messing with your life, why not at least give it a try? If it doesn't work out, at least you'll never have to wonder what might have been."

Taiga shakes his head. "I can't."

"What's the worst he can do, at this point? Reject you?"

"You don't understand," Taiga says, but he can never tell Riko about the note he wrote to Aomine. Maybe it makes him a liar, but he would rather have Riko's respect than a lighter heart.

"Fine, maybe I don't understand," Riko says. "Satsuki and I have never split up for longer than three minutes. I'm just telling you what I'd do if I were in your shoes."

"I know."

She pats his back and gets up. "I've got to go -- naptime is almost over, and I don't want Satsuki to know I was here."

"You don't?"

"She's been saying we should leave you alone because that's what _you_ would want."

"Smart woman, that wife of yours."

Riko smirks. "I told you, I don't care what you want. I'm the oldest person in this family, and all you losers should listen to me."

"Yes, Mother," Taiga deadpans, earning another smack upside the head as she circles the sofa and heads for the door.

Once she's gone, he tries to resume the game, but he can't concentrate. He felt better while Riko was here, but now that he's alone again, he's back to seeing Aomine's face every time he shuts his eyes. Back to wishing he could take everything back -- his stupid, petty note, sleeping with Aomine, agreeing to hear him out, answering the Azabudai call, confessing, falling for Aomine. Ever meeting Aomine. If only he stayed put in LA instead of going to a Japanese high school like his parents wanted.

_Oh yes, that'll definitely help. Regretting all the things I can't change._

It is as though having said the most cruel thing he could conceive of has opened some kind of floodgate to a place in his mind where he locked up every kind thought he's ever had of Aomine. He woke up the morning after sneaking out of Aomine's hotel room feeling like the world's biggest fuck-up, and nothing since then has helped ease his guilt.

But it's just guilt, isn't it? Riko's right. He should just apologise. Then maybe he can stop getting lost in daydreams about what it would be like if Aomine lived with him, for example. He can almost picture it now, sitting on the sofa with the game controller falling out of his slackened hands -- Aomine walks out of the bathroom with that casual, devil-may-care look on his face, and asks Taiga if there's anything to eat.

He'd leave his clothes lying around, bespoke suits and ratty shirts full of holes alike, and if Taiga complained about it, he would know all the ways to take Taiga's mind off it. He thinks of Aomine's hands on him, of his hands on Aomine. He thinks about breakfast in bed, and for some reason, Aomine always burns the toast.

He thinks of Aomine's face. Did he come out of the shower with a forced smile? Did it fade when he saw the empty room? Did that blank-eyed, hurt look come back into his eyes when he found Taiga's note?

His chest begins to hurt again. What possessed him to write such a thing? Why didn't he just toss it like he first meant to? It's bad enough that he walked out on Aomine after seeing his crying face. Why did he have to leave that note? 

For all that Taiga has little love for the police, Aomine was in that house fire because of his job. And if he had died there, it would have been because some low-life knocked him out, meaning for him to die. He would have died in the line of duty. As someone who risks his own life to protect others, shouldn't Taiga have considered that much? How would _he_ feel if someone wished he'd died during a rescue operation?

_I have to apologise_.

He will just have to make it clear that he's just apologising for being out of line. He's willing to bet Aomine really hates him now, so maybe he won't even listen when he realises that it's Taiga's on the other end. But like Riko said, he's got to try. Maybe once he apologises, the rest of it -- the endless regrets and the daydreams -- will finally stop.

Trouble is, he has no way of contacting Aomine, unless he goes through official channels. Meaning the fire station. And Lt Awamori will hit the roof if he shows up in the middle of a voluntary self-suspension. _Shit._

He remembers Aomine sliding his card across the table at Querencia. He remembers ignoring it, and then, less than an hour later, getting up and walking away, leaving it on the table. He didn't even glance at it once. _Shit!_

Taiga calls Tetsuya.

"Hello? Taiga? Has something happened?"

"No, no -- why would something have happened?"

"I'm pretty sure you haven't actually called me in at least four years."

"Well, neither have you!" Taiga counters. "We live next door, so it's fine."

"Yes, yes. So, what's going on?"

"Don't 'yes, yes' me," Taiga growls. "I called to see if you still had Aomine's number."

"I might have the one he called me from a while ago, if it's still in my logs."

"I'll take it."

Several minutes after Taiga hangs up, he gets a contact forward from Tetsuya. He Googles the number and finds out that it's just an internal TMPD number, the general one for the vice squad. He feels deflated for having bothered Tetsuya for something he could've found out on his own. He just didn't imagine it would have been so simple. Then he drops his phone on the table and goes to take a shower. 

Afterwards, he warms up yesterday's leftover pizza, stands over it for so long that it goes lukewarm. Puts it back in the fridge. Checks the clock on the stove: three fifty-seven, Friday. If he doesn't call in the next hour, he'll have to wait until tomorrow -- or even Monday. Fancy detectives might get Saturdays off.

He sits back down on the couch, turns on the TV, dials the number.

"Vice squad," barks a woman on the other end. In the background, he can hear someone shouting.

"Err… Aomine?" Taiga manages. "D-Detective... Aomine? Please?"

"He's in the field, want his voicemail?"

"Yes, please."

"'Moment."

"Hello, this is Aomine Daiki at Vice. I'm unable to come to the phone at the moment, but please leave your name, telephone number, and a brief reason for your call, and I'll get back to you. If you're calling about the Ginza community forum scheduled for December seventh, someone else will be in touch as I've been reassigned to another team."

Taiga's breath is stuck in his windpipe; he's never heard Aomine sound so… slick. Imagining Aomine as he records that message is doing really stupid things to his head. Aomine's got this whole other life somewhere out there, one where he doesn't look at Taiga or think of Taiga at all, where he is on teams at work and participates in community outreach and plays basketball on a strictly hobbyist level.

The machine beeps insistently.

"Uh, hi. It's-- It's Kagami." Taiga rattles his cell number off on autopilot -- he's so used to doing that when leaving messages that by the time he realises it, it's all on the recording. "I'm-- shit, I guess I just wanted to-- I'm. I was." He breathes deeply. "I'm sorry I left you that note, that was unfair and uncalled for. You risk your life for your job and I. I was wrong. Not my place to make light of that. You-- you don't have to call me back or anything. I don't want--" He's about to say he doesn't want to see Aomine, but that's a lie. "--to bother you. I just couldn't stop thinking about what I--"

The machine beeps again. "Thank you for your message. Please hang up," says a pleasant female mechanical voice.

No chance to play the message back and erase it. _Well, that's that._

Taiga tosses his phone aside and glances at the TV, where a harried-looking reporter keeps yammering in high-pitched squeaks about "the incident", whatever the hell it is. He's too fucking irritating; who the hell hired that asshole to deliver news to the people, with a voice like a children's cartoon character? Taiga jabs the power button on the remote and hurls it in the same direction as his phone. His heartbeat won't slow down and he keeps going over all the nonsense he just babbled into Aomine's answering machine.

Apologising over voice mail like some fucking twelve-year-old. "Fuck!"

He lies down on the couch and stares at the ceiling until Satsuki bangs on his door and demands that he make an appearance at dinner. He does, and somehow he manages to be mentally present, for Satsuki's sake at least, and he prays that Tetsuya doesn't ask if he managed to get ahold of Aomine. But Tetsuya has always known when to keep his mouth shut without being told to. It's one of the things Taiga's always liked about him, even before they became friends.

He comes back from dinner and snatches up his phone, but there's just a message from his mom in LA and a couple of mails from his teammates concerning tomorrow's post-game venue.

His phone rings six times the next day, but neither of those is Aomine, and as Taiga tells himself that surely on Monday Aomine will come back into the office and check his messages, he realises he's in trouble. _I told him he didn't have to call me back, so why would he? I've made it very clear to him that I don't want him near me. I made him promise me that he'd go away. What the fuck am I doing?_

He takes to putting his phone on silent, hoping that this way he can forget about it, and when he checks it, there will be some good news. But he keeps checking it every fifteen minutes anyway, and eventually he turns the ringer back on because he's just being ridiculous. He calls in sick to Fukui because he's completely fucking useless even as a benchwarmer, and he knows that, but he can't help it.

By the time Tuesday rolls around, Taiga begins to understand that there will be no call. And why would there be?

_Maybe I said my number wrong. Maybe I was accidentally off by a digit, and maybe he called some other person and now thinks I was just playing a prank, yanking his chain._ Taiga's never been the sort of person to do that, but Aomine doesn't know that, does he? They barely know anything about each other, for fuck's sake. All they ever had was a strong physical attraction and a one-time mutual love of basketball. Besides that, it's nothing but heartbreak. They're well rid of each other.

So why does he keep looking at his fucking phone? 

Why is he up at two in the morning with his tablet, trying to see if he can find the vice squad's address like he found the phone number? All he turns up are news articles, most of them recent. He doesn't read them.

His phone rings, and Taiga snatches it up in irritation. "Yeah."

"Kagami."

Taiga freezes, and his heartbeat begins to resound in his head. "Hey, I-- uh. I'm--"

"I just called my work voicemail," Aomine says, his voice thick. "You called."

Taiga's heart drops, and his guts twist together. He's so flustered he can't tell if Aomine's tone is accusing. "Yeah. I didn't mean--"

"Hey, you know, I'm really sorry," Aomine says. "About how everything turned out." He's slurring the word endings. _Drunk?_ "Don't feel bad for what you wrote, I deserved it. Pretty much." Aomine gives a short laugh, and then hiccups, or maybe hisses, Taiga can't tell. "I could get in trouble for saying that right now."

_What on earth?_ Taiga frowns. "I-- Can I see y--"

"Aomine-san!" a woman's voice screams in the background. "What are you doing with a phone? Who gave him that?"

The line goes dead. Taiga looks at the call log, but it was a private number.

_What the hell just happened?_

It's two in the morning. There's only one person he knows who might be able to help him find out about a cop, and he's pretty sure she's on shift. He's helped her out enough times that she can do him a favour in return, even on short notice. He dials the fire station.

"Kagami?" Lt Awamori says, picking up. "You're up late. Are you finally coming back?"

"Do you remember that cop from Azabudai a few months ago?"

"Oh, did you just hear about it? Yeah, that was him yesterday. The reporters aren't allowed to disclose his name, obviously, but--"

"Reporters?" Taiga interrupts. "Yesterday?"

"Have you been hiding under a rock? The courthouse shooting yesterday morning. He was escorting some foreigner to trial and ate three bullets in the doorway."

_I'm letting a witness stay at my place until a trial in two weeks._

Taiga's heart plummets.

Lt Awamori keeps talking. "Let me tell you it's been like a goddamned circus around--"

"Where," Taiga grits out. "Do you know where he is?"

"Whoa, easy. I can find out, but you're gonna have to sit tight. Did you two become friends or something?"

[tbc]


	8. Chapter 8

*

"Are you okay?" Taiga asks Satsuki as they ride the elevator to the police hospital's eighth floor. 

Satsuki looks up at him. "I guess? I don't know? Why do I even care, Tai-chan?" Her voice is pitched a little higher than usual.

Taiga wishes he had an answer for her, because then maybe he'd be able to answer the same question for himself. It took Lt Awamori until morning to find out where Aomine was being treated. He did not plan on telling Satsuki about what happened, but when she came over to borrow some coffee and asked why he looked so terrible, he just sort of blurted it out.

Then she insisted on coming here with him.

_All he does is make us both miserable,_ Taiga thinks, looking at Satsuki's tense profile. Her hair, which she usually keeps neatly pinned up these days -- a toddler with a fondness for hair-pulling will do that -- is loose around her shoulders, like how she used to wear it in high school.

But there's nothing high school about where they are and why they're here. There is nothing high school about the dread seething in Taiga's belly or the yammer of his guilty conscience. He isn't superstitious, but he just can't shake the thought that by writing down a wish for Aomine's death in a fit of pique, he brought this on.

The elevator announces that they've arrived on the eighth floor, and the two of them step out into a corridor that smells sharply of antiseptic and terrible coffee.

"We're here to see a patient by the name of Aomine -- Aomine Daiki. We were told he's allowed visitors," Taiga says to the attendant nurse when they reach the visitor counter.

The unsmiling young nurse in attendance gives them both suspicious once-overs. "Your names?"

Taiga gives them, wondering if it's normal in Japanese hospitals to ask for visitor names, or if it's just because Aomine's a cop. He's no stranger to hospitals; the occasional injury is a fact of life for anyone who makes a living playing sports, but he's never been an inpatient, nor visited anyone besides Riko after she gave birth to Seiichi. But that was a private hospital.

"You're not on the list," the nurse tells them. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to see Aomine-san."

Taiga blinks. "List?"

He must look so genuinely perplexed that it seems to makes the nurse to decide he's above suspicion. She gives him an apologetic look. "The police department doesn't want the media bothering this patient, so only people from an approved list may see him now."

"They're fine," says a woman's voice from behind them. "They're friends of the family. You can go ahead and add them; I'll let Inspector Ishizaki know."

Taiga turns to look at the speaker, who's a tall, striking woman holding a large cup of steaming coffee. Aomine's mother. He's never met her before in his life but she has the same cheekbones, the same dark skin. The same midnight-blue eyes, except hers are warm. Has Aomine ever looked at anyone with eyes like that?

"Satsuki-chan, it's been truly a long time," she says, smiling with obvious delight. "I'm very sorry that we have to meet again under such circumstances."

"Auntie," Satsuki says with a shallow bow, her lip wobbling. "Is he--"

"He'll be fine," Aomine's mother says quickly. "One shot was a through-and-through, and they got the other two bullets out without a problem, even though it took a while. No organ damage at all, just a shattered collarbone."

"Sh-shattered?" Satsuki asks, looking a little green.

"It sounds worse than it is," Aomine's mother says with a glance down the corridor. "They should be waking him up for an examination right about now, do you want to come and say hello before the doctor comes?"

"I-- I need the bathroom," Satsuki says. "I won't be long."

She heads for the women's washroom just across from the nursing station, and Taiga wonders what the hell he's supposed to do with himself now. He didn't know what he expected. He kind of thought that they'd be led to a room full of medical equipment where Aomine would lie sleeping, tubes all over him, dwarfed by the countless monitors and wires around him, and that's about as far as he imagined any of this.

But of _course_ Aomine's family would be here. It's a wonder there isn't an honour guard; shootings, particularly highly publicised ones, are rare even here in the capital. Of course everyone's jumpy about reporters.

"You're Dai's… special person, aren't you?" Aomine's mother asks.

Taiga starts. "Me? That's… I-- I'm really not."

She covers her mouth with her hand, and the coffee in her other hand shakes enough that he worries she'll spill it. "Ah, I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you."

Taiga bows a little to let her know it's fine, but he realises she isn't apologising for making a mistake but for putting him on the spot. He doesn't want to argue with her, especially not at a time like this. It's not like there's any harm in her thinking he's Aomine's boyfriend. He just wonders what makes her so sure. "Did he tell you--?"

She shakes her head with a small, rueful smile. "Dai doesn't tell me such things. He kept a framed picture of you hidden in a drawer in his room when he was a boy. It was the only photograph he took with him when he moved out. I recognised you right away."

"My picture…?" Taiga thinks out loud. Where did Aomine even get a picture of him?

"His father, he's -- well." She pauses, takes a noisy slurp of the coffee and wrinkles her nose at it. "I'm sorry. I really don't know how this kind of thing is done. Please take care of my son."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Satsuki says. She's put her hair into a loose ponytail and a few stray drops of water linger on the sides of her face.

Aomine's mother gives Taiga a conspiratorial look that makes him just about want to die of embarrassment. 

Then she leads them down the corridor after bowing to the duty nurse. They walk past walls painted a deep sea blue, their shoes thumping against ugly brown linoleum polished to a shine. The doors lining the corridor are mostly shut, but the door plates indicate that to the left are the semi-private rooms and to the right are the private ones; either way, this is obviously not intensive care.

"Oh, they aren't here yet," Aomine's mother says from the doorway to one of the private rooms. "I'm going to go find out if the doctor's running late, please excuse me."

Satsuki is the first into the room, her steps hesitant. She turns around to look at Taiga. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," Taiga says. Now that he knows Aomine will be fine -- his mother's quiet assurance was enough to convince him -- he realises how tired he is. Adrenaline was all that kept him alert through the night, and it's draining away fast, leaving him vaguely disoriented, like the world has slowed down around him. He takes Satsuki's proffered hand and lets her lead him through the doorway.

Aomine's way too huge for the bed he's in. No forest of machinery, no tubes. Just a patient in one of those ugly green gowns asleep beneath white sheets. If not for the heart rate monitor and the IV next to the bed, it might even look like Aomine's just decided to take a nap in a random hospital room.

Taiga's eyes fixate on a notebook lying open on the rollaway bedside cabinet, next to a tray with a water pitcher and glasses. Halfway across the page is his cell phone number, the numerals all crooked and sloping off the line. He can practically see Aomine last night, cell phone to his ear, struggling to write the number down with just the night light. 

Next to the notebook is Aomine's phone. Tied to it is a charm Taiga knows well: a miniature replica of the blue-yellow Flares jersey, and this one bears his player number.

An invisible fist tightens around his heart.

"What a stupid face," Satsuki mutters, staring down at Aomine. "Tai-chan, why can't I hate him like I used to?"

"I guess neither of us really hated him to begin with," Taiga says without thinking, and then he realises that that's exactly it. They say the line between love and loathing is thin. Thin it may be, but it might just run deeper than the wounds Aomine gave the two of them.

Besides, if it were as simple as just love and hate, there'd be no such thing as forgiveness. He puts his hand on Satsuki's shoulder, and she tips back slightly against him, her eyes still on Aomine. Taiga looks at him too and wonders why he feels so stupid for having taken so long to realise that his feelings for Aomine have never vanished or even changed. They merely gave way to other feelings. 

His shattered pride was already appeased when Aomine begged him for just one night. It was appeased tenfold when he walked out on Aomine after that one night. So what does he gain now from denying how he feels? When he tries to imagine if the bullets had been less kind, if he were standing over Aomine's grave, all he can picture is a grey blur and the harsh silence at the end of a sob.

Aomine's eyes twitch open, and his heart rate monitor begins to beep a little faster. "It's you guys," he mutters.

"Idiot," Satsuki says. Under Taiga's hand, her shoulder trembles. "Don't they give you special vests or whatever? What kind of police are you?"

"This is Tokyo, not New York, dummy."

"And yet you managed to get yourself shot," Taiga says.

"It's not like I stood around yelling please shoot me," Aomine returns.

"I'm terribly sorry, but we're going to have to cut your visit short," says a diminutive woman with a doctor's name-badge hanging from her neck, stepping up to Aomine's bedside. "You can wait until we're done with the examination in an hour or so, or you may return later this afternoon."

"We'll go," Satsuki says, pulling Taiga back out into the corridor. Once there, she feels Taiga's forehead. "You look awful. Let's take a taxi home."

"Home?" Aomine's mother asks. She, too, seems to have been booted out of Aomine's room, and she's wearing an expression of utter shock. "Satsuki-chan, are you two--?"

"Neighbours," Taiga says.

Satsuki gives her a guarded look. "We live across the hall from each other."

Aomine's mother processes this with a slight frown. "Will you come again?" she asks, addressing Satsuki.

"Only if you promise not to tell my parents that you've seen me," Satsuki says.

"They really miss you," Aomine's mother says. "I think your mother--"

"I'm sorry, Auntie," Satsuki says. "Tai-chan, let's go. I'm taking you home before you need a hospital too."

Taiga sighs. "You stay here and talk to Aomine-san. I'm just tired. I'll get home by myself."

Satsuki peers into his eyes. "You sure?"

Taiga nods. It's obvious to him that she wants to stay and talk to this woman. Hell, maybe she wouldn't even mind being convinced to see her parents again. He's not sure when he became able to read Satsuki the way Riko can read her, but that's living in close quarters for you. They've all got each other's numbers one way or another.

*

Taiga sleeps through the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon. When he wakes up, he contemplates just staying in bed and trying to sleep through the night, too. He can deal with the world tomorrow.

His phone rings, and it's a private number.

"Kagami," he says, just in case it's not who he thinks it is.

"Hey."

It's exactly who he thinks. "Hey."

"They put a screw in my collarbone," Aomine informs him. "I'll be setting off metal detectors now."

"Thanks, that's just what I was waiting to find out," Taiga says, pulling the phone away from his ear and glancing at the clock. Six. "No basketball for you, huh?"

"Not for three months."

"How long are they keeping you in the hospital?"

"Another week."

It's funny; ever since Taiga stood in Aomine's hospital room this morning and thought about the difference between love and hate, it doesn't feel the least bit weird to be talking to Aomine as if they never stopped. Only yesterday, just imagining this conversation would have sent him into a foggy daydream.

But he knows what he wants now.

"What the hell were you doing checking your work voice mail while hopped up on whatever it is you were on last night?" he asks to keep the conversation going.

"Because of Tamara. The witness? She ran away when I got shot -- she was the target after all. I was checking to see if she called the squad while I was in surgery."

Taiga realises for the first time that Aomine took the bullets meant for this woman because he tried to protect her. There's no way people resourceful and brazen enough to shoot a witness in front of a Tokyo government building crawling with cops, in broad daylight, would have sent a crappy shot to do the job. He's not sure what to make of the mixed emotions welling up in him: he can't help but admire Aomine's dedication, but he's also furious at Aomine for not treating his own life with respect.

"Did she call?" he asks, realising he was causing an awkward silence.

"No. She's fine, though. They picked her up at a ferry terminal down in Yokohama earlier."

"What'll happen to her?" 

"They'll get her testimony on record and deport her. Her visa expired last week."

"That's pretty harsh."

"Harsh old world."

Taiga doesn't know what to say to that. The silence stretches out, and he tries to picture Aomine sitting propped up in his hospital bed, fiddling with the Flares charm on his phone, eyes closed as he wonders what else there is to say.

He forces himself not to think about how lucky Aomine is to be alive. Instead, he thinks about that phone charm and what it means. He thinks about his number in shaky handwriting and his photo hidden in a drawer.

"Your mom thinks I'm your boyfriend, by the way," he says.

Aomine must've been drinking or eating something, because he lapses into a coughing fit that has Taiga a little concerned until Aomine croaks, "Can you come here?"

Taiga bites his lip. "Better not." He takes a deep breath. "If your heart rate goes up a lot, won't the nurses notice it?"

"My heart-- Kagami. Are you flirting?"

"I don't know what the hell I'm doing," Taiga says, honestly.

"Why don't you come and say that to my face?"

"Say what?"

"That part about the heart rate."

"Technically, I am saying it to your face," Taiga says, rolling over to lie on his stomach. "Unless you've got your phone in your armpit or some other weird place."

"Why would I put my phone in my armpit, stupid?"

Taiga laughs. "You're the one saying weird stuff about your face."

"My face isn't weird."

"It's super weird."

"I get it. You're changing the subject."

"I'm not. We're talking about your face, right?" Taiga shuts his eyes. "I like it."

"What?"

"Your face. I like your weird face."

Aomine exhales noisily. "You wanna see it?"

"You're really determined to make me come over there, aren't you?"

"Will you?"

"Tomorrow," Taiga says. "During visiting hours."

"What time?"

"I'm not telling you," Taiga says, hanging up.

He stares at the phone in his hand. Ten years ago, that hand looked about the same as it does now, except for the scar across his left thumb from a kitchen accident. The phone was different. But his heart is pounding the same way it did then. 

Like ten years ago, he wants to hide under the covers with his phone and relive every moment of the conversation he just had. Like ten years ago, he's recklessly in love. 

He knows it won't always feel like this -- he'll never forget the intervening years or the heartbreak. Some days will be worse than others. But somewhere along the sleepy-eyed taxi trip from the hospital to his apartment, Taiga found something inside himself he never hoped to recover: hope that everything will somehow work out. And that'll be worth the bad days.

*

"You didn't even bring a fruit basket," Aomine complains when Taiga walks in.

"I brought you tangerines." Taiga hefts the bag onto the bedside cabinet. "So don't whine."

Aomine wrinkles his nose. "I wanted a basket. Of peaches."

Taiga rolls his eyes as he sits down in the chair someone left next to Aomine's bed. "How the hell do you expect me to afford a basket of peaches in November? I'm not in the NBA, you know."

Aomine grins. "You really are a good guy, Kagami."

Taiga extracts a tangerine from the bag he brought and begins to peel it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're explaining why you didn't bring me a goddamn basket of peaches just because I said I wanted one."

"If you want a basket of peaches, of course I want to bring you one. Asshole."

They fall silent. Taiga's not sure what to make of Aomine acting like a brat, but he guesses he's got his reasons.

"Hi," Aomine says after a few moments, peering into Taiga's face with a somewhat anxious look. He does have his mother's eyes. "You came."

"I said I would," Taiga replies, his heart beginning to do the oh-shit-Aomine-is-looking-at-me dance. "Where's your mom, by the way?"

"Off crying because I told her you're not really my boyfriend."

Taiga smirks down at the tangerine in his hands. "Really. Did she like me that much?"

"This really isn't how I thought this was gonna go," Aomine tells him.

Taiga pauses in peeling the tangerine. "Oh?"

"Yeah, I thought I'd wake up and you'd be by my side holding my hand or something. Instead you made me wait like half the day."

Taiga shakes his head. "You watch too much bad television. And I was busy."

"...and then I'd say your name, and you'd look up at me and there'd be… I dunno, violins and shit," Aomine continues, undaunted.

"Dumbass," Taiga says, blushing as he hands him half a tangerine. "Eat this and be quiet."

Aomine eats one section and then looks directly at Taiga again. "So how about it?"

"How about what? I'm not fucking bringing violins in here," Taiga says, sliding a bit of tangerine into his mouth.

"How about you be my boyfriend for real?"

[to be concluded]


	9. Chapter 9

Taiga shoves his entire half of the tangerine into his mouth and stares down at his hands as he chews. He takes his time, to a point that he can't even feel the segment membranes between his teeth any more. The machine on the other side of Aomine's bed is beeping in time with his own heartbeat.

"You're not answering," Aomine says.

Taiga takes a breath and looks at him. "You don't need to ask."

The guarded expression that has crept onto Aomine's face fades away, like a cloud chased from the sun. "Yeah?"

It's easier, like this. Just let it happen. What are words before a bond that hasn't broken in ten years? It's frayed, all right, so worn it could break with another hard pull, but despite everything they did, despite everything they didn't do, it's still there.

Taiga offers Aomine half a grin. "I think this is the part where you throw yourself at me, so, you know, feel free."

"I'm not really in throwing-myself condition." Aomine gestures at his right arm, which Taiga only now notices is in a sling. 

He's been so focussed on Aomine's face and the sound of his voice that he almost forgot Aomine was in the hospital for a reason. "Okay, you can throw yourself at me when you get better."

"Is that it?" Aomine protests. "You could at least give me a little kiss."

Taiga turns around to look at the door, which stands half-open.

"No one's going to come in," Aomine says. "Mom's at work; she's not actually off crying."

"I knew that." Well, he knew that she wasn't really off crying, not that she was at work.

Aomine presses a button on the remote control for the bed, and his backrest moves forward, lifting him up a bit more. "She was the one who always pushed me to just get married to some well-bred lady who doesn't mind my _condition_."

Taiga thinks back to yesterday, to the look on Aomine's mother's face when she recognised him. _His father, he's -- well._ "Condition, huh? So your dad was the supportive one?"

"You could say that. He doesn't approve, but he thinks I should do what I want."

"I think your mom's changed her mind," Taiga says. He still gets lost sometimes in the intricacies of formal Japanese, but he knows disapproval when he sees it, and there was none of that with Aomine's mom yesterday.

"I know. She looked you up yesterday, after you gave your name to the nurses. Now she won't shut up about what a catch you are and how it's a shame I can't actually marry you."

Taiga lifts an eyebrow. "Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?"

Aomine gives him an indignant look. "My _mom_ is." A pretty, deep pink blush stains his cheeks. 

Taiga leans over to him, close enough to feel his breath. "I didn't know you could still do that."

"What?" Aomine tries to kiss him, but Taiga turns aside.

"Blush," he says, bracing one arm against Aomine's back rest.

"I don't blush," Aomine says, hiding his eyes.

Taiga lays his free hand open against Aomine's flushed cheek, tilts his face up, and quickly presses his lips to Aomine's. His heartbeat feels like the thumping of a frightened rabbit's feet. This is not the kiss he waited ten years to return; that one will have to wait until they're good and alone. So he keeps it strictly PG-13, and when Aomine's lips part beneath his, Taiga moves back. "You said a little kiss."

"I changed my mind," Aomine whispers. His heart rate machine's beeps have almost caught up to Taiga's heartbeat again.

"If that thing gets any noisier, won't someone come running?" Taiga says, sitting back in the chair.

"Unplug it," Aomine advises. 

For one perfectly insane moment that's thankfully quite short, Taiga considers it. "I'm not unplugging your heart rate monitor, you numpty. You just had surgery not two days ago."

"I feel fine," Aomine grumbles. "The surgery went fine, it just hurts a little is all."

"They're not keeping you in here for another week because it 'hurts a little'," Taiga tells him. "So be quiet and listen to your doctors so you can get out of here."

He visits Aomine four more times after that. Twice, Satsuki comes with him, and one of those times, Riko joins them too. Taiga's yet to tell them his changed relationship status, but he's pretty sure Satsuki already knows, because after the first visit, she stops saying bad things about Aomine.

On the day of Aomine's discharge from hospital, Taiga's at an away game in Kawasaki -- his non-emergency sick leave ran out two days ago. He's benched for most of the game, with the Flares barely managing to eke out a win thanks to a free throw by Kenta. Once the game is done and he's showered and dressed, he checks his phone and finds a message from Aomine with just an address in it.

`What should I bring?` he sends back, but Aomine doesn't reply.

"What's the matter, Tai-kun?" Kenta asks him on the bus ride back to Tokyo. "You're practically vibrating."

"Got a date," Taiga says without thinking.

"A da-ate?" Kenta shrieks, and then the rest of the team buries Taiga under an avalanche of questions, the answers to most of which he doesn't even know. For instance, how is he supposed to know Aomine's three sizes? Unless these refer to something other than bust, waist, hips -- but in that case Taiga's only aware of one thing whose size is ever discussed. And he's definitely not going to talk about Aomine's dick to his teammates. Not even to Kenta.

As they're slogging through the last of Tokyo traffic before arriving at the Flares' gym, a reply arrives from Aomine: `Bring yourself.`

Taiga sighs. He stops by an upscale greengrocer's on his way to the train station and picks up a box of very expensive but extremely pretty imported peaches. _It's the principle of the thing._

Aomine's place is in a quiet neighbourhood filled with virtually identical low-rise rentals; starter apartments. Not what Taiga expected, given Aomine's wardrobe and frequenting of places like Querencia. As he climbs the stairs to the third floor, Taiga wonders how long Aomine's lived here. There are plants outside his apartment door, and all of them look healthy. Not that Taiga's an expert; he's got two dead cacti on his conscience.

Taiga rings the doorbell. From inside the apartment, he hears footsteps, a _thump_ , cursing, and then more footsteps until the door opens. It's weird to see Aomine dressed in normal clothes instead of the hospital gown, though 'dressed' is a bit of a misnomer, because he's wearing only half his shirt; the other half is draped over his injured shoulder.

"Hey," Aomine says, stepping aside to let him in. 

"Here," Taiga says, handing him the peaches. "I didn't have time to get anything else."

Aomine's eyes widen as he takes the box from him. "I was joking about peaches that day, you know."

"You were joking about the basket," Taiga tells him, toeing off his shoes. "Not about the peaches. Your mom told me they're your favourite."

"I'm gonna regret letting her meet you," Aomine mutters. "Anyway, thanks. Come on in."

Aomine's place is exactly what Taiga expected when he saw the building -- one room, tiny narrow kitchen, tinier bathroom, and a closed door leading to either a bedroom or a pantry. The most prominent smell is of some kind of cleaning product, though that's probably because Aomine's just moved back in after letting that witness stay here.

"Mom wanted me to come live with them while I've got this thing," Aomine says, gesturing with the slinged elbow. "But I can handle it."

Taiga gives him a sceptical look. "When are you due back at work?"

"Monday," Aomine says. "Modified duty. Meaning I'll be fielding phone calls, mostly."

"What's your boss thinking? You can barely dress yourself," Taiga says, frowning at Aomine's shirt.

"I can if I take the sling off. It just hurts like hell to move my shoulder, so I didn't bother. I figure you've already seen my nipples and all."

Taiga grins. "Dumbass." He's had a collarbone injury -- the one that pains him still when he gets stressed out -- so he knows it's technically possible that Aomine's telling the truth, but Taiga can't be sure he isn't just trying to put up a front. Taiga had a hairline fracture; surely a shattered bone would hurt worse.

_And isn't that the weirdest thing of all? I know this guy but I don't know what he's like._

Aomine walks into the kitchen to put the peaches down on the counter; Taiga follows him. He sees no dishes in the sink or on the drying rack, which is strange: if Aomine's been home since morning, shouldn't he have eaten something?

Yesterday, he caught the tail end of a lecture Aomine's doctor gave him on the importance of proper nutrition and avoiding overexertion after he's discharged. "Can I look in your fridge?" Taiga asks.

Aomine gives him a look that's one hundred per cent guilty. "No."

But he's too far away to prevent Taiga from opening the refrigerator door anyway. The inside is empty save for a sealed bottle of mayonnaise on the door and five cans of extra dry beer on the bottom shelf. "Are you an idiot? What have you been eating all day?"

"I went out and had a burger earlier," Aomine tells him, a touch defensively. "Besides," he adds, coming closer, "My dinner just arrived _and_ he brought dessert."

He corners Taiga between the fridge and kitchen wall so that Taiga's only escape would be pushing against his injured shoulder. But Taiga doesn't want a way out this time.

"If you think trying to seduce me with cheesy lines is going to work, you're absolutely right," he says and puts his hands around Aomine's waist, drawing him closer.

"Shut up, that wasn't cheesy," Aomine mumbles.

Taiga sticks one hand out to make sure he shut the refrigerator fully, then returns it to the small of Aomine's back. "You're right; the cheesy thing is that our first date's gonna be at a supermarket, buying you real food." Aomine's face is so close that Taiga's lips are moving almost against his cheek.

Aomine's eyes meet his. "You asking me out on a date?"

Taiga kisses him, once. "I'm not asking."

Aomine kisses him back, slow and lingering. His eyes fall shut partway, and that's it for Taiga: the last of his restraint crumbles. He takes Aomine's face in his hands and kisses him as deep as he wants to. Aomine's mouth is softer than he remembers, but the taste is the same, and so is the nervous excitement spiking in his chest.

He was scared that kissing Aomine for real would drag him back to the first time they ever kissed, ruin the moment, but he's done reliving that day, and now he's sure of it. He moves one of his hands down over Aomine's collarbone, and Aomine lets out a soft yelp; Taiga remembers about his injury and pulls away, feeling guilty. "Sorry. Maybe we shouldn't--"

"I don't fucking think so," Aomine interrupts. "Come with me."

The mystery door Taiga noticed earlier does lead to a bedroom, which is literally a room filled with a bed; there's only a little floor space open in front of a sliding-door wardrobe. This is where Aomine manoeuvres them, and then sits down on the edge of the bed with his legs open around Taiga, whose back is so close to the wardrobe door he can feel it behind him.

Aomine runs his thumb along the bulge Taiga's dick makes in his jeans and then puts his mouth over the fabric, pressing hard.

Taiga shivers, but hesitates. He didn't even think of going further than making out; Aomine's just been in the hospital for a week. "D-Don't be stupid," he says, unsteadily. He knows he should just move away, but he can't. "The doctor said no overexertion. If your injury gets worse--"

Aomine reaches for the top button on Taiga's jeans. "I'll be careful with it."

"But your surgery--"

"It was bullet extraction and bone reconstruction, not a triple bypass," Aomine says, snapping the button open and grabbing the zipper. "Don't try to put me on all fours and it'll be okay." He releases Taiga's jeans and looks up at him. "Unless you really don't want to."

Taiga knows he should just say he doesn't want to. He really should. But that would be a lie, and he's pretty sure Aomine would see right through it anyway.

*

They've piled pillows against the bed's headboard for Aomine to lean on, and Taiga's spent the last ten minutes lying on his stomach with his head between Aomine's open legs, deliberately not touching his cock, and instead licking and biting at the insides of his thighs, which have turned out to be even more sensitive than Aomine's nipples, which had their turn half an hour ago, right after Aomine almost made Taiga come with just his mouth. Taiga thinks of the thigh kissing as payback.

"Fuck, Kagami, do me," Aomine says, his voice hoarse. "Just-- the lube's in the drawer under the bed, to your left."

Taiga feels around under the bed and his fingers brush across the cool metal of a drawer handle. He hangs leans a little over the bed so he can see and pulls on it. The drawer slides out smoothly, and the first thing Taiga sees is a framed photo of himself in his Seirin uniform. It's a candid snap from one of the games in their second year -- Taiga knows because half Tetsuya's head in the shot, too, the back of it anyway, and he's got that dumb tiny ponytail he only wore that year.

_He kept a framed picture of you hidden in a drawer in his room._

He's not sure if it's creepy or adorable that Aomine keeps this picture in the same place as he keeps his sex paraphernalia, but then he realises that the rest of the drawer is full of papers.

"I said your left," Aomine says from behind him. He sounds embarrassed. "That's your right."

"When did you take this?" Taiga asks.

"Satsuki took it. I wasn't there. I found it on her phone later and sent it to myself. I dunno why."

Taiga turns to him with a slight smirk. "I guess you don't know what compelled you to get it printed and framed, either."

"I figured I'd never get a picture of your dumb face otherwise," Aomine says, looking away as he sits back down against the pillows. "I really wanted one, okay?"

Taiga grins and decides to let it drop for now. He shuts the drawer and pulls out the other one. He doesn't look too closely at the arrangement of toys and porn and heaven knows what else, just grabs the familiar bright yellow bottle and a condom from a pile, then climbs back to the middle of the bed and settles with his face between Aomine's legs once more.

He squeezes lube onto the fingers of his right hand and reaches back for his own ass. 

Aomine's an idiot if he thinks Taiga's going to make him bottom when the potential for causing him pain with the wrong movement is so high. Taiga remembers all too well how it felt to fuck Aomine the last time, how out of control he felt at times. He doesn't want that to happen when he could seriously hurt Aomine and hinder his recovery.

"What are you doing?" Aomine asks. It's a completely unnecessary question, in Taiga's opinion; Aomine can see exactly what he's doing. So instead of responding, he puts his mouth on Aomine's dick, and Aomine stops asking questions. With his breathy groans every time Taiga stops sucking to play with the head or just lick up and down the length, it doesn't take Taiga long to feel like he's more than ready to find out what this dick feels like from the inside.

He rips the condom wrapper open with his teeth, slides the condom onto Aomine's cock, pushes Aomine's legs to open wider and straddles him, not moving in too close to give the sling room, but close enough so he can lean in for a kiss. He likes kissing during sex, and he hopes Aomine does too.

"Taking advantage of my injury," Aomine mutters, looking up at him with clouded, heavy-lidded eyes. He hasn't said much since Taiga got personally acquainted with his dick, and Taiga takes that as encouragement.

"Pretty much," Taiga tells him, reaching back to grab Aomine's dick and position it against his hole. He bites his lip as the head of Aomine's cock breaches him, then goes down slow and careful, breath stuck in his throat. Aomine's mouth falls open, and Taiga bends down to kiss it, careful not to jostle Aomine's sling, but he's too fucking turned on to pay attention to more than that. He has no clue what his tongue is doing, so the kiss is too wet, but still really good, especially once he's all the way down, when Aomine's cock is as deep in him as it's ever going to go.

He breaks the kiss and waits a few moments for his body to adjust. "Still gonna complain?" he whispers to Aomine, whose good arm is clutching Taiga's waist like a vise.

"I wish I could push you down and let you have it right now, you bastard," Aomine whispers hoarsely. "I'm gonna come in like a second."

Taiga kisses beneath Aomine's ear. "And here I was looking forward to a nice long ride on your cock."

Aomine lets out a sharp breath. "Keep talking and I'll come in your ass right now."

Taiga rocks back a little. "Really?"

"Fuck!" Aomine tips his head back and squeezes his eyes shut. "Kagami."

"Yeah," Taiga whispers into his ear, sliding up, slowly, trying to find an angle that'll feel good for both of them. Aomine breathes noisy as Taiga goes back down and thrusts up into him, deeper, and once again they find their rhythm right away, no false starts, no slip-outs -- and though Taiga has to give up on finding a nice angle in this position, it still feels good because he can see Aomine's pleasure on his face and feel it against his tongue as Aomine moans into their open-mouthed, sloppy kisses. Taiga thinks he could come just listening to Aomine reach his peak and makes a mental note to try phone sex sometime. Like tomorrow.

"Coming," Aomine gasps, and Taiga stills, letting Aomine rock up into him with fast, shallow thrusts. Aomine's teeth graze Taiga's neck at the peak, and the last moan he gives makes Taiga wish he'd had the foresight to put his hand on his dick, because right now he could come with one hard squeeze.

Aomine sags onto the pillow pile and slides out of Taiga, who sits down on the bed between Aomine's legs. Aomine stares down at Taiga's cock, reaches for it. Half a hard squeeze is all it takes, and of course it gets all over Aomine's sling.

*

Taiga wakes up in a bed that's too big to be his and immediately remembers the night before. The sex, the post-sex shower that was less shower and more sex, the post-post-sex-shower-shower. Helping Aomine into the spare sling. The pizza delivery guy running off and forgetting his money because Aomine glowered at him for some reason still known only to Aomine. He came back five minutes later, looking sheepish and red-faced.

Taiga sits up a little and goes for a long, full stretch before going back to sleep, but it's dark, and his hand smacks Aomine's nose on the way up. Right. Aomine went to sleep half-sitting in the pile of pillows because of his arm.

"What is it?" Aomine mumbles. "Taiga?"

A warm flush goes through Taiga's chest, up into his face, so intense that he wants to press his hands to his cheeks to cool them down. He remembers feeling so jealous of everyone Aomine called by their first names in high school -- Satsuki, Tetsuya, several of his teammates. He wanted to be one of them. He never thought that feeling was still around, but here it is, an unexpectedly deep satisfaction. He's glad it's dark, because he's probably tomato-red right now.

"Nothing, I was stretching. Sorry."

Aomine yawns loudly. "Okay, as long as it isn't domestic violence. I'm still a cop, you know."

"Quit talking nonsense," Taiga murmurs, pulling himself up so he can lie closer to Aomine's pillow mountain.

"I want to hug you but this fucking sling is in the way."

Taiga smiles, rolls even closer, feels around for Aomine's uninjured hand atop the pillows and laces his fingers together with Aomine's. "Better?"

"Mm." Aomine yawns again. "Now I want a kiss. And some pizza."

Taiga laughs mutely. "Go to sleep, Daiki." 

Daiki's fingers tighten against his, and then neither of them says anything for a long time.

Half a year ago, he was sure he was living the life of his dreams, but he was wrong. 

_This_ is much closer.

_Four years later_

Taiga stares at the t-shirt crumpled at the foot of the couch for a few moments, sighs resignedly, then bends to pick it up. He carries it into the bedroom, where Daiki is pretending to be passed out and taking up most of the bed, wearing only a pair of basketball shorts. His Sunday best.

Taiga walks over and smacks his chest with the shirt. "Don't leave your clothes on the floor."

Daiki grabs the shirt, gives it a tug, and pulls Taiga down on top of himself with it. "Don't hit people with their own clothes," he murmurs, hooking one leg around the back of Taiga's thighs and cupping his ass with both hands. "It's hot, so I took it off."

"If you're not careful about where you're touching, it's gonna get hotter," Taiga tells him. He lets go of the shirt and brushes his hand back across Daiki's forehead.

Daiki rolls him to the side. "Didn't you turn on the air conditioner?"

"I did, but it takes a while. You should know that by now, you practically live here."

Someone pounds on the front door. "Mo-om, Uncle Tai locked himself in again!" Seiichi's indignant voice carries very well.

A woman says something that Taiga can't make out -- he's not even sure if it's Riko or Satsuki speaking.

"But I want to show him my new fire truck!" Seiichi complains.

The voices recede.

"The lungs of five-year-olds are sure impressive," Daiki observes. He's worked his hand underneath the waistband of Taiga's shorts and is tugging them down with a determined look.

"I'm so glad I put the deadbolt in," Taiga says, not for the first time. He could put ten thousand _do not disturb_ signs on his door when Daiki comes over, but none of them would deter Seiichi, who can read them just fine but assumes they don't apply to him. "Though once Satsuki gives birth, he'll be too busy trying to be a good big brother to come over here. I guess I'm gonna miss it."

Daiki gives up trying to pull Taiga's shorts off and sticks his hand inside instead. "You want one? A kid, I mean."

"I dunno," Taiga says automatically, throwing his arm around Daiki's shoulders and sliding closer. This is Daiki, he remembers. He doesn't need to watch what he says around Daiki. "Yeah," he admits. "Someday."

Daiki kisses the side of his neck. "When we go to LA next month, let's get married and adopt one."

"Are you seriously proposing to me with your hand down my pants?" Taiga asks.

"I'm not-- oh, shit. I shouldn't have said that. Yet."

Taiga flips over to lie on his back. "Okay, I'll forget you said it. For now. Make me feel good."

Daiki does. He always does. Though this time, because they've barely seen each other in a couple of weeks, it only takes about three minutes. They don't even manage to get completely out of their clothes, and Daiki's shirt -- the one Taiga just picked up from the floor -- ends up badly in need of a wash anyway.

Once, when they first got together, Taiga was sure that no matter how much he loved Daiki, he would always expect to get hurt. He used to imagine being Daiki's partner as similar to raising a pet wolf: regardless of the strength of the bond, the animal will always be a little dangerous. But Daiki is more spoiled housecat than wolf, as it turned out. In four years, he hasn't hurt Taiga once. Not really. They have their petty differences like every other couple in the world, but those don't count.

Daiki returns from the bathroom with a wet towel and offers it to Taiga, who declines. He'll take a shower in a minute anyway, and by the time he's done, the air conditioner will finally be going. Daiki lies down next to Taiga and drapes the towel over his chest with a contented sigh.

"About the thing you forgot I said. If you hadn't forgotten it, how would you have answered?" he asks after a short silence.

Taiga turns to look at him and is met with that face Daiki always makes when he's serious but also feels embarrassed about being serious: goofy grin and anxious eyes.

Taiga sits up using his elbows for leverage, leans in, and presses his forehead to Daiki's. "I would have told you that you don't need to ask."

[the end]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it for the story, I hope you all enjoyed this final chapter! I'm sorry it was a little late.
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has come back to read the chapters every week, for all of your lovely kudos and wonderful comments and engaging conversations and endless encouragement. AoKaga fandom is the best. ❤❤❤

**Author's Note:**

> The TFD and TMPD are depicted as I imagine they could be 10 years in the future, and though I have done a lot of (non-academic) research, I do not claim that this is in any way reflective of how these organisations work in real life.


End file.
